The Story of Thunder
by xXBeckyFoo
Summary: After Hyde left her alone in that hotel room, things for Jackie Burkhart changed drastically. Vowing to never go back to what hurt her, Jackie finds herself back in memory-lane after a nasty trick of fate. She's back, but she's fighting for her survival, and the safety of her most well-kept secret.
1. Feels Like Rain

**The Story of Thunder.**

* * *

**Chapter One: Feels Like Rain.**

"And cut!" With high beam lights focused to make various spotlights, a petite woman glowed as she stepped from behind one of the main cameras. The set-lights made her brown hair shine and her eyes illuminate with radiance and an alluring glitter.

But even with such emphasis on the no-doubt beauty that she held, the lights of the studio also highlighted the deep frown taking over her delicate features; making her eyes sparkle with an edge. The brunette walked past a tape-line that marked where the staff and crew-people weren't allowed over, her heels sounding heavy and important on the tiled floor, even for such a small person.

"So? How was it?" Noticing the woman, a blonde chewed on her gum shamelessly. She stood in front of marbled wall, her dirty heels dragging in mud from the outside and all over the new carpet of the studio-set. She was the tenth person that the T.V. station had auditioned for a hosting position they had open for a new project they were working on.

But it seemed that even with the line of women trying to get famous with their talentless dreams and too-small tops, having to recruit someone as a host for a simple talk-show was hard and took more than a week. They had to deal with incompetent people wasting valuable film on their poor skills. Not to mention the others who thought it was just a joke and just wanted to flash their big breasts around the studio-set, hoping to snag a producer or director from their busy lives and sleep their way into fame.

"Perhaps you read the sign wrong—"It was times like these were the executive Producer of the T.V. network wished she had never taken up the offer for this job. It was impossible to deal with sometimes, but don't get her wrong, she had a graceful way of bossing people around and getting things done with perfection. There was no one better for the job than her, but sometimes wanting to quit and surrender was something she had been thinking about desperately lately.

Because lately…escaping seemed like the right solution.

"—Or perhaps I need to fire someone because whoever was in charge to put out the casting-calls made a grand typo." But quickly forgetting about her personal thoughts, the Producer took three steps closer to the blonde as her crew recoiled. "This was meant to be an audition for our network's new morning talk-show—_not a Porn_ _film_." Luckily, Jacqueline Burkhart was around to save the day for the T.V. studio.

She was no quitter, and she was here to save all their asses from handing the director of the network a future candidate for a dirty movie. Jacqueline was there rain or shine, even when every ounce of her body and mind were asking her to hide underneath her blanket and never come out again.

She was a fighter...Well, at least she still liked to believe she was.

"Do I get the job or not?" The blonde popped her gum, hand on her exposed hip as she stared at the brunette. "I'm not getting how this works."

Ms. Burkhart narrowed her eyes, venom pooling into her mouth as every member of the crew went silent. All of them watched the scene before them like an episode of a T.V. show they did not help create; amusement in most of their faces. Some of them always liked the clever remarks their boss had to say, liking the way she stood up to anyone. But none of them actually knew that her dark, witty retorts were part of her teenage self, of a girl she no longer knew how to be.

"You don't get what?" Jacqueline snapped. "That most middle-aged homemakers of this state don't want to see a bimbo on their television sets shoving their boobs in the camera? That they don't need a giggling retard attempting to teach them new tricks in their kitchen that doesn't require them to be naked and dancing around a pole?"

Some of the crew muffled their chuckles, making the blonde stomp her foot on the rug. "You can't talk to me that way! Who the hell do you think you are?"

"I'm the one who is telling you to leave _my_ set and go apply to the Fatso Burger around the corner!" The brunette hissed, a headache brewing from the cheap perfume in the air. "Someone escort the her out. And make it a woman. If a guy does it, God knows he won't come back until he is short twenty dollars and zipping up his pants." She waved her palm at the people, and turned around.

And at the sound of her heels against the floor again, the crew members began to move once more. One of the interns walked hastily towards the infuriated blonde ready to show her the way out.

"Jonathan give me a bottle of water, please," Jacqueline ordered politely, sighing to herself. "And a few aspirins from the First-Aid kit."

"That was pretty harsh, Jackie." As soon as the teen intern scattered, a dark-haired woman handed her boss a clipboard.

"They don't pay me to be nice, Amanda," Jacqueline replied to her assistant, flipping through the papers attached to the board. "Besides, you shouldn't be complaining. If I was nicer to the people here, you'd take on the heavy-load. I gotta balance my emotions out somehow," she added.

"It's like Christmas everyday," Amanda said sarcastically, but with a genuine smile on her face. (It wasn't a secret to the crew that she and the boss were tight. Well, as tight as coworkers could get.)

Jacqueline smiled slightly, shaking out her brown waves as she lowered the clipboard on a nearby table. "We better hope for a miracle, Amanda, or all of our asses will be out in the street if we can't find a host. There was nothing but blondes, blondes, blondes. They're like a damn epidemic in this city." .

"I'm glad I dyed my natural hair then, because with your random hatred for blondes, Jackie, I'm pretty sure I would've been fired long ago." Amanda rolled her eyes. "I swear if Dolly Parton was to come into our set you'd have security escort her out. People don't just hate things for no apparent reason, you know? Are you every going to tell me why? "

Jacqueline stared at her friend, a little amused. "Nope," she said carelessly. "But here is a random fact for you, I'm Jacqueline Burkhart, I was born hating."

The assistant rolled her eyes again. "_Anyways,_" she waved the subject away. "You have a meeting with the executives tomorrow up in WGN-TV. They've been trying to get a hold of you but somehow you always seem to be busy."

"Of course they do," she grunted. They always wanted to see her in hours they demanded and not on her time. Executives or not, Jacqueline had important things to do once she clocked-out. Going home, for one, was more important that hearing them ramble about something. There was a reason why she was the Producer for the network, she _knew_ what she was doing."You know I have to go home no later than six, stop agreeing to see them after that time, Amanda. I cant waste any time to accommodate these people."

"Technically, Jackie, they're your superiors. They are the people that control your career, you sort of owe them," Amanda said in a know-it-all tone. "They _can_ fire you if you don't do everything your job entitles you to do. Besides, meetings and executive-business only take an hour or two, you're going to have to figure something out."

"First off, they know how I work. And if they didn't like it, they would have fired me long ago, but obviously I'm good at what I do," the brunette retorted. "And if they're getting tired of it, then they can always fire me whenever they want...Maybe I'd be better off if they did," she whispered the last part, coughing and looking back down at the clipboard.

Amanda raised her eyebrow, expression puzzled. "What do you—"

"Ms. Burkhart!" Just in time to save her, Jonathan came rushing back.

"You took a long time to get me a water bottle." Jacqueline took the bottle from his sweaty hands, downing the pills for her headache.

"I'm s-sorry," he apologized. "But they had a phone call for you. A-And I know how much you hate people interrupting you during work, s-so I was trying to get them to call back later but they didn't give in." The intern gulped, breathless after his explanation.

Jacqueline's heart rate picked up, fear racing beneath her skin. _Don't let it be bad, God. Please don't let it be bad. _

"They're still on hold?" She asked coolly, trying to control her nerves and negative thoughts.

"Y-Yes ma'am." Jonathan nodded hectically.

"Schedule that meeting before four tomorrow, Amanda," the executive producer ordered her assistant, walking away from her before she protested.

"—Ms. Burkhart, we have a problem." Walking backwards as he almost passed her, the Production Assistant appeared next to Jacqueline; looking sweaty and determined.

"What is it, Charles?" The brunette asked, taking a step to the right to get away from the man's BO.

"About the auditions, I was thinking...we need to find someone soon. Now, I don't want to criticize but—"

"But you are, Charles," Jacqueline said with a humorless puff of air.

Charles gulped. "W-well, it _is_ important to find a host, Jacqueline, and we can't be putting it off any longer," he managed to say without running out of breath, both of them stopping by a reception counter. A black phone was waiting on top of a stack of papers.

Staring at it like if it was about to blow up, Jacqueline found her heart banging painfully inside her chest; almost breaking past her bones, a worry so thick taking over her heartbeats. "Can you give me a minute?" She asked impatiently at the man.

"Sure,"Charles sighed.

Taking a deep breath, she picked up. "Hello?"

"Jackie? Jackie, is that you?"

_Oh, my God._

"Jackie? _Hello_?"

If the brunette thought her heart rate was racing at a dangerous level before, she was mistaken. This time she couldn't even feel it, her skin started to go numb.

"Come on, Jackie!" The voice from the other side of the line pleaded.

"I-I'm here," Jacqueline squeaked in return, her legs shaking.

"Oh, I thought you might have hung up on me. I know it's been a long time..."

"It has." _Way too long_.

"It's really hard to get a hold of you, Jackie," the voice said with a bit of an accusing tone.

She inhaled deeply to get her lungs working again, the sound of her breath flying into the speaker of the phone. "I bet."

There was other voices in the background. She couldn't make out of who, or rather she didn't want to. It _had_ been a long time, but even so, she didn't want to be having this conversation at all. She had expected something bad, but not from the past. "Jackie, something happened. _Something bad_. We thought it was important for you to know..."

_'We?' _She thought with a bit of fear._  
_

"What exactly happened?" She whispered into the speaker.

"Have you been getting my letters, Jackie? The ones I've been sending you for the past four years? You would know what I meant if you read them...Or have you not bothered to open them at all?"

She swallowed roughly. _Of course I've read them. How can I not? I told myself that my old self was gone, but I _needed_ to keep some connection alive. But just a tiny fragment of a connection, something not big enough to be able to communicate back with you. _

"...Yeah, I've read them."

There was a pause from the other line. "Jackie, she's in the hospital now. We don't know how bad it is this time. The doctors are hoping for the b-best but...but they...the medication isn't advanced enough yet to—" The brunette could hear the tears being spilled, a piercing feeling filling her chest. "You need to come, Jackie. It might be the only chance you get. She never forgot you…She badgered me for news of you every day, you know, even when I didn't have any." There was an intake of breathe. "I _know_ she meant a lot to you as well."

"She did," Jacqueline said flatly, controlling her emotions.

"Jackie," the voice sounded frustrated, "she might die." The painful feeling doubled. "Don't do this, please. You have to be here." In the middle of the attempt of persuasion, Jacqueline heard more voices echo somewhere on the other line. "Look, if you don't want to do this for me then do it for him. He's so destroyed, you know he cant live without her. We need some of your stubbornness to get to him, so we can make him feel better even for a bit."

_I can't help you, I can barely help myself nowadays_.

"...I don't know." The thought of home crossed her tormented mind. Her real home. The one that existed somewhere in her memories and faded dreams; a place where she used to feel alive, great, and powerful. A feeling of warmth that always burned in her heart when she was there.

And that place was nowhere near where she was now. Here it was always degrees below freezing.

"She might die, Jackie," the voice repeated.

She sighed, her thoughts twisting themselves as her past and future jumbled together. There was more to consider these days, but she couldn't find it in her to say no.

"Fine."

A sigh of relief broke out. "Thank you, Jackie."

Even though she knew they couldn't see her, the brunette nodded. "Goodbye." She hung up the phone before they could speak again.

"Ms. Burkhart, about our problem—" Forgetting that Charles was still roaming nearby, Jacqueline attempted not to hiss at the poor man as she started feeling dizzy and overwhelmed.

"Pick one," she replied, walking hurriedly towards her set.

"Excuse me?" Charles followed behind with great effort. "What does that mean?"

"You choose her, Charles. That's what that means. It's up to you," she explained quickly, rolling her eyes.

"Really?" He sounded suspicious and happy at the same time that she had to let out a laugh. "Are you sure, Ms. Burkhart?"

"Yes, Charles, I'm sure. Now stop talking before I change my mind."

"What's going on?" Amanda asked as soon as her boss came back into view. She raised her eyebrow at the sweaty man, feeling slightly disgusted at his sloppy smile.

"Go now, Charles, start making new casting-calls and anything necessary to find us a host. Don't mess this up or I'll personally make sure you end up working as a janitor for the network," the Executive producer threatened.

"What was _that_ about?" Amanda asked again, looking at her boss awkwardly as the man practically skipped away happily. "It looked like Mister O'Neil was about to have a seizure from all the nodding he was doing. Did he proclaim his love for you again? Ew, did you agree to go out with him?"

Jacqueline began to stuff her belongings into her purse, her head still rushing from the phone call that she didn't even come up with a comeback to throw at Amanda. "I've put him in charge of this production until I come back."

"_What_?" Amanda bellowed loudly, gaping at the brunette. "That's even worse! What do you mean when you come back? I hope you mean from the ladies room, Jackie!" The assistant entered a moment of shock. "Where the hell are you going anyway?"

"Don't ask questions, Amanda," the brunette retorted. "Just make sure that the idiot doesn't mess up any of my hard work, and that means no ditsy blondes on my set. You threaten to call me if you have to if he gets out of hand, and I'll set him straight. I'll just be gone for a couple of days, I hope."

Before the petite woman could walk away from her, Amanda seized her by the arm. "Hold on—"

"_Ow_!" Jacqueline winced, eyes wide at the strong hold her friend had on her.

"Im sorry!" Jumping from the squeal her boss let out, Amanda immediately let her go. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Let me see." She began to roll Ms. Burkhart's sleeve up. "Oh, quit being dramatic, Jackie, I didn't—" She stopped. Shadows of green and yellow caught her attention.

"Let go, Amanda!" Jacqueline tore her arm away.

"J-Jackie, I-I..." Amanda thought for a moment, convincing herself that she did not squeeze the brunette's arm too hard. (She knew Jackie was weak and small, but she wasn't freaking made out of paper to develop such mark from a grab.) "Your arm is marked up _badly," _she spoke after a second, her gaze still fixated at the marks she saw. "Your entire arm is bruised."

Holding her sleeve down tight, Jacqueline stared blankly at the dark-haired woman. "I'm trusting you to keep my set in one piece, Amanda. If I come back and everything went straight to hell, it won't be a winter wonderland for you any more, got it?"

Concern still showing on her face, Amanda nodded. "Where are you going?" She asked again, not sure if it would be pointless but she had nothing to say at that moment.

Jacqueline Burkhart took in a deep breath. "Home," she murmured before heading to the exit. "Point Place, Wisconsin."

* * *

**AN: This is a remake of ShellyHale's story called "Thunder." (So, if you read it before and you're not sure why it sounded familiar, this is why.) She allowed me to redo it as she deleted it from her account and decided that it needed some adjustments. **

**So, I took over. Yay!..Or Nay?**

**R&R? :)  
**


	2. Of All the Imperfections

**Chapter Two: Of All the Imperfections.**

"Kelso, you're a dead man if you rub your ass all over that table!" He had stepped out for three seconds because the doorbell had been rung and he went to check who was outside. But the moment he went to pay the paperboy is the moment that an opportunity arose for another. "Get off my table!" Eric Forman glared at his friend threateningly, throwing an old rag towards his direction.

"God, Eric!" Dodging the wet rag, a tall handsome man began to buckle his belt as he stared outrageously at Eric. "I wasn't doing anything!" He protested even though the evidence was obvious. "You are always accusing me of everything that happens around here! It's like being in Africa diluted all the humor in your body."

"What are you — _I just cleaned that_!" The skinny man waved his hands around, getting more aggravated by then second. However, even though he was close to a deep burning fury, he also looked at Kelso with confused eyes. "Wait, did you just say diluted?"

"Brooke taught me." Kelso grinned hugely. "Yeah, we've been cracking open the Thesaurus from time to time. She teaches me new words, and I teach her different ways she can call out for me just like your sister did." Kelso fist-pumped the air. "Memory burn!" He laughed. "Because I did your sister, man!"

Eric sighed, rolling his eyes at his old friend as he put his palms down on his kitchen's white counter. (Some days were seriously tougher than others.) And lately it seemed like he had been cleaning Kelso's butt-prints more than he had in his previous years, or more than it was considered normal.

It had been a year that he had left home, gone to teach in low-income schools in Africa. The heat and the lack of entertainment were torture the first couple of months. He had been so used to Wisconsin's chilly weather that the heat was unbearable the majority of the time, and sometimes he felt like he was suffocating with the dry air that some of his coworkers had to dump him in a river before he panicked even more or passed out.

And not to begin to mention the lack of knowledge the people had on Star Wars, or any worthwhile comic-books. _Ha_. (The first time he mentioned Luke Skywalker one of the kids asked him if he would like for him to look for Mister Skywalker. The outrage he had felt.) Television was, of course, out of the question; making it the toughest three months he had ever experienced. But even after everything seemed not to be going right for him, there was something—a weird sensation he began to feel every day he entered the classroom. To see all those pairs of eyes looking up at him with anticipation, kids waiting to learn with a patience and determination he had never seen before. It was something beyond normal for him, because no one _wanted_ to learn, but these kids were so grateful to go to school they walked miles just to attend.

And that erased the the longing thoughts for his lightsabers.

It was that kind of motivation that kept him going. If unfortunate children could do what he only had to do until his course was complete for all their childhood and teenage years, why couldn't he? The feeling Eric Forman got whenever he finished the school day, after a few short hours of teaching the students a bit of English and math, was that of accomplishment. He never felt so useful before, never felt so important and needed. Like he was actually changing lives...

It was that feeling and those faces that drove him to want to stay another year. It's what made him deal with the heat, with the bugs, with the wild animals seven sizes bigger than him that he sometimes had to encounter on the way back to his hut, the mosquitoes, and the months clean of any 'film'. (Sure, they didn't have T.V's but the people sure had drug tests. Go figure.) Despite all that, he _wanted_ to stay. After all, they needed him more here than at home. Sure, he missed everyone, his old life, but he was making a difference in Africa than at Point Place.

But one day when he was on his way back to his little hut, after dodging a rhino that was in mid hunting spree, he received a letter from back home; the postman told him it was important. Eric had just figured it was just his mother being over dramatic about some recipe that went wrong, the latest gossip about one of his friends, or that Laurie had suddenly come back from wherever she was and brought a baby with her.

But _no, _he was mistaken.

When he ripped the top of the envelope, instead of preparing himself to laugh at the description his mother would give of his father's face when his precious daughter introduced him to her bastard child, he was slapped in the face roughly with a reality he had been missing.

He was needed at home; _quickly_. Something had gone wrong, something he never thought would happen at any point of his life. And just as he had held the feeling of importance, it had been snatched away from his insides. The flame of excitement to stay for another year was distinguish with the swift blow of Wisconsin's cold wind. It was time to say goodbye to Africa and hello to that dumpy town he came from.

"Kelso," distracting Eric from his thoughts and memories of heat, a tall redhead walked through the kitchen door, frowning. "Would you stop trying to rub your ass on the things Eric has just finished cleaning? Make yourself useful. Take this and start sweeping the driveway, no one's picking up the bag of confetti you scattered yesterday night." She tossed him the broom. "_Now_, Kelso!"

"But, Donna—"

"Do as I say, dillhole!" The redhead commanded as she took a couple of steps towards the scrawny man leaning on the counter. "I will kick your ass if you haven't left in three seconds. One, two—"

"_Fine_!" Michael Kelso shouted back, taking the broom with an undignified expression. "Excuse me for trying to add some sparkle to this place!" He added. "But you can forget about the pinata I stole for you guys! _Oh!_ And I'm going to your house, Donna! Expect to find some of your underwear missing!" He stormed out the sliding door, muttering about how they just didn't appreciate him nowadays.

It was just like Kelso to annoy his friends, like he never grew up when the rest of them had. (Well, as grown up as they could get.) People just expected that for him to have had a child at eighteen, training and attending a police academy, and having to move away to be closer to his baby girl, would've made him mature over the years, but it was_ Kelso_. He didn't even know the meaning of mature, or how to spell it. Everyone was to prepare for a life full of his commotions, and that was a guarantee from his part. (And he currently was in fiesta-mode!)

"I feel sorry for Brooke," taking the chance that Kelso had left the kitchen, Donna grabbed Eric from the waist; hugging him. "Having to have an idiot as her baby's father must be pitiful. I think one of those many, many times that Kelso was knocked out from falling off the water tower didn't help him one bit. We screwed him up for her." She rested her head on his shoulder, trying to feel his warmth. (She had to bend down a bit, but she loved to be close to him.) Words couldn't described how much she had missed him.

"...It's not Kelso," Eric said in a low voice, slowly dropping his hands down to where Donna's were. "His stupid pranks have never gotten to me like this before, it's just…_I'm_ not suppose to be cleaning the kitchen, Donna."

Donna sighed, her arms loosing around him. "_Eric_."

The scrawny man shook his golden-brown hair, looking at the white counter-top as he explained himself. "I know what you're thinking, and it's not a sexist thing, Donna. I swear it. After that feminist-rally and the way your savage friends attacked me, I am _never_ going to disrespect a woman again."

She let out a forced laugh, pulling herself away from him. "It wasn't even that bad, Eric." Donna slid a chair out of its place and sat, her green eyes looked back up to Eric's brown ones. And once they had connected for a long, tensed second, she patted the space next to her. "Everything that happened was just an accident, you know that."

Eric scoffed, rolling his eyes as he took a seat next to the redhead. "They chased me down all Point Place; _naked_! That Shirley one was — _she was huge_! I swear she must have been a football player or something because when she tackled me down, I swore I felt my spine snap."

Donna let out another puff of laughter, trying not to roll her eyes. "I think you're doing a great job keeping everything clean, Eric," she said seriously, dropping the subject of their memory. It seemed that it was something that was happening quite frequently lately—the lack of humor circling the air. It never lasted long now. At least not as much as it had been in years past, even _she_ had lost some of the ability to laugh these days. But she was trying. (God knows she was.) "Everything looks spotless," she added with a proud smile.

Eric felt his knuckles tighten against his skin, almost poking out of it as he felt a twisted emotion inside of him. He lowered his head, choosing to look at the table, at anywhere else but at the redhead. "It's not the same, Donna," he replied to her, knowing he wasn't going to get out of this conversation without a fight.

Donna frowned too, grabbing one of his palms before it turned into a fist. "Look, Eric—"

"No, you look, Donna." Eric's anger rose up, pulling his hand away from the redhead's. He was tired of Donna's daily speeches, tired of her trying to pep-talk him like she just stepped out of a Cheerleader seminar. She had to understand that no matter what she said to him, no matter what she attempted to explain to him, _nothing_ was the same anymore. She could attempt to smile and grin at him like she was the most optimistic one of them all, but nothing changed.

Her desires to have him see a rainbow outside, even though the sky was at its darkest blue, was wasting away with him.

_It's been a month, give it up..See the reality I see, _he thought_._

"You have to stop, Donna, alright?" He muttered to her through clenched teeth.

Donna bit her lip.

Usually, years ago, any other day perhaps, she would have kicked his ass for raising his voice at her. She would have stood up in all her height, made him cower away in ways that they both knew she could get him to do, but this time he was right. It _was_ different now. Although the reasons of his lashing out made sense, because she knew how much he had to sacrifice, it still hurt her. She still felt like he had stabbed her through the heart; letting her bleed. She knew that what he wanted the most was to stay in Africa, and that killed her inside. That every time something triggered a memory from that country his brown eyes lit up so beautifully, they had an indescribable shine to them. Something that she had never seen before in the entire time they had known each other.

It shouldn't have mattered to her, they _were_ broken up after all. He had made it perfectly clear in that letter that he sent her after a few weeks he was in Africa, and she had sworn that she was going to respect his choices and just move forward. And so, she tried to move on with her life as much as she could, even if the first few days were torture when he was gone and when he had broken-up with her, she had truly felt like she had lost him forever, but moving on is what she did.

But that day when Eric came back home, every sense of self fulfillment that she had developed for herself seemed to have blown up in her face. And every feeling that she had sworn she had lost for him came back like a high-speed wind; multiplying itself like a dangerous virus. She loved him, she wanted him forever. And that tore her apart, but there was nothing left to do anymore when you feel that way, and she knew that.

So when she first saw him cross the sliding-door of the Formans kitchen as she sat with Kelso on the table, she _knew_ it was meant to be. (And, luckily for her, Eric hadn't found himself an African Goddess and still loved her too.) She ran into his arms and he embraced her tightly; then the sparks flew once again.

"I'm...I'm just trying to stay positive, Eric. I hate seeing you like this," she said as softly as she could.

"Well..._stop,_" Eric responded, his anger residing slightly. "It doesn't help."

Donna frowned, finding it hard to be the peachy-sweet girl. "Ever heard of seeing the brighter side of things?"

"What bright side? It's been three years, Donna. Somewhere along the path of misery and pain...the light stops shining."

Donna winced, the choice of words he had said hurt her internally ."...Don't say that." _Please, don't give up. Don't do it. You from all people cant, you need to keep things together. The way you've always known how to do it._ "Remember what the Pastor said, Eric, faith helps you bring yourself through the moments of darkness. Just have faith."

"That's the biggest load of shit I have ever heard," Eric snapped. "What does faith exactly do, Donna? Nothing, that's what. It's like telling someone to wish upon a star and hope that their wish comes true. But reality check: chances are someone across the damn state saw that star first, and you've got to wait in line." He slammed his fist on the tabletop, causing Donna to jump up. "In the end you realize there is nothing divine, you're just left alone to figure the way out by yourself."

Donna's eyes began to burn. _Don't cry. You're suppose to stay strong for him—but it's like I'm making excuses for him. Like he is acting out, but he isn't a teenager anymore_.

"I'll wash the dishes today, Eric," she said, knowing no better way than to avoid the argument of religion or the fact that he had lost his faith in God. "I've already finished the bedrooms upstairs, so all we have to worry about is dinner."

"Damn it!" Eric hissed, sounding like a young version of the old man he had witnessed shouting throughout his entire childhood. He stood up from his chair and aimed a kick at his stove. "Damn it, damn it!" He continued kicking repeatedly; not noticing as Donna let a few tears slip from the vivid anger burning in his face as she grew suddenly scared from his outburst.

"Eric," the redhead gasped, standing from her chair. "Eric, stop!" She gripped him from his shoulders, pulling him away. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I didn't mean it!"

"It's not you," Eric said in the harshest way he had ever whispered. "...It's not you, Donna.._I'm_ sorry." He took a deep inhale, turning to look straight into her green eyes. "You shouldn't be here...You should have stayed full-time at the radio station, Donna."

Donna paused, her tears no longer falling. "_What_?"

"I left to Africa wanting to give you the best...and yet again I make you give up the things that are the best for you," he confessed. "I'm holding you back, aren't I?"

She bit her lip again, shaking her red hair as she laughed lightly at the scrawny man she loved with all her heart. "I love you, Eric. Anything that has to do with you would never hold be back...You're my future, so you move me forward."

Forman smiled; all the fury that he had felt burn inside of him was long gone. There was just something about Donna that made him feel better; like she was the cure to any poison he could have ever drank. "You're...You're amazing."

Donna smiled too, reaching her arms towards him again; hugging him once more. "I know I am."

"I thought I heard your sweet voice, Forman—" The swinging-door of the kitchen opened, Eric's brother standing with no expression on his face, but Eric knew that behind his avatar glasses, the curly-haired man was glaring at him. "Yeah, Zeppelin is especially bad-ass when I can hear you curse like a little girl with underwear up her butt."

Eric laughed, putting an arm around Donna as they both faced his brother. "Any luck, Hyde?" He asked, not knowing how to throw a comeback to that. (Surely because Hyde would have kicked his ass if he knew he had lashed out at Donna again, and then made fun of him for caving like the whipped boy he always was.)

"I had to get the hell out of there, man," Hyde said, walking towards the fridge. "I seriously thought he was going to stick his foot up my ass this time." He reached in and pulled out a can of beer. "I'm not going up there again, man. I came from a dysfunctional family, if I see another guy raise his fist at me one more time, I'm going to have to go straight to therapy."

"_Wuss,_" Donna snickered, but Eric covered her mouth with his hand.

"Wait—then who else is going to do it?" Eric asked, sending a look up at the ceiling like if he could see that angry man Hyde was referring to. "You're the only one that can, Hyde."

Hyde snorted. "Yeah, right."

"Well, Eric can't do it, you know that," Donna chimed in after she bit the palm of Eric's hand. After all, it was no secret to Point Place's residents that Red Forman couldn't even look at his son these days. There had been this moment of explosion that had taken up the Formans household when Red found out that Eric had signed up for another year in Africa and refused to come home. (Even though - in reality- Eric had come home without a retort, but Red was always right. And Point Place was not about to counter argue him; the boy was a sinner.)

"What about you, Big D?" Hyde suggested.

_ Sacrificing myself? No way. I rather throw Eric into the room. _"Why do I have to do it? I made breakfast this morning!"

Hyde took a swig of his beer. "Well, someone's got to do it, Forman, and it ain't going to be me anymore."

"—Hey, guys." And just in cue, Fez came into the kitchen from the basement; smiling happily. "Oh, by the way, Eric, you're out of Popsickles." His accent still as thick as the days he first had arrive to the country.

Like a holy signal had gone off, Eric and Hyde smirked at each other as the foreigner continued to smile like a little kid. "Fez, man, you finished all the Popsickles?" Hyde spoke, scowling at the brown-skinned man. "That was a week supply of Popsickles—for _everyone_."

Fez dropped his smile. "B-But...I was out of candy...and they were just sitting there, calling for me. I couldn't resist."

"Selfish, man, selfish." Hyde clucked his tongue as Donna laughed silently, Eric looking at the Fez with a very-well acted disappointment . "How could you do that at a time like this? You owe Eric an apology, man!"

"I'm sorry." Fez lowered his head in shame. "Forgive me, Eric."

"I'm seriously hurt, Fez," Eric said, adding a frown to his show. "However...there is one way you can make it up to me, that way we could be friends again.".

"We're not friends?" Fez's bottom lip trembled. "I-I'll do it, Eric. I'll do anything."

Eric grinned. "I was hoping you'd say that, Fez." He put a hand on the foreigner's shoulder. "And you know what that way is, my friend."

Fez's dark-eyes widened instantly. "...Oh, no." He shook his head, looking at his friends with a terrified expression. "Please, _no_. I'll buy the beer for a whole month, but don't make me do it! Last time I came out I couldn't walk for two days!"

Hyde grinned, laughing mockingly. "Sorry, Fez, we have a year supply of beer thanks to that old woman that wanted to sleep with Kelso."

"Donna, help me!" Fez pleaded, turning to the redhead. But as soon as she she shook her head at him, he gasped. "Help me, you big, red whore!" The foreigner yelled.

She shrugged. "Sorry, but you were acting pretty selfish, Fez. It's only fair you pay the price. Besides, you are doing nothing to help."

Eric chuckled, patting his friend's shoulder as he frowned. "In four hours you have to go up there," he pointed a finger to the ceiling, "and you have to try and feed must stay in the room at least for twenty minutes. That is the rule."

"If you don't stay there for the required time, you will be in charge of it for the next week. _And_, you're going to have to give all your candy to Kelso and you're not allowed to hang out in the basement after your duties," Hyde added.

"_Ayyy_!" Fez complained, stomping on the tiled floor.

"Guys! Guys!"Running through the sliding-door, slamming against Fez, Kelso came charging in; waving the broom around his head like a mad man. "There — _outside_ — panties!" He heaved. "Go! Go! Go!"

"Kelso!" Staring aghast at a familiar blue bra that was tied around the bristles of the broom, Donna shouted at the man. "I'm going to kill you! I warned you about going through my underwear!"

Noticing that erratic state Kelso was in, Eric furrowed his brows together in question. "Did you see a bee again, man? We've told you they were out for revenge after that beehive you lit on fire, you had to stay low!"

Kelso shook his head rapidly as Donna ripped the broom from his hands. "No, man! You got to go outside!"

"Why?" Hyde asked, downing the rest of his beer.

"Hot chick!" Kelso blurted.

"_Oooohhh_." The guys nodded in unison. Of course, hot girl. Nothing got Kelso so riled up but girls, boobs, and dogs playing poker.

Donna glared. "Pigs."

"Whatever, Donna." Kelso rolled his eyes, taking a quick glance outside the door to see if that girl was still out there. "Anyway, you might want to go get your panties off the hedges before the paperboy and his friends come for their daily peek through your bedroom window. You don't want them to go into overload with your bras scattered on the pavement."

"_Kelso_!" Donna shouted again, this time swinging the broom at the man. "How the hell did you even open the drawer, I locked them in!"

Trying to dodge the broom, Kelso pushed Fez in the middle between him and Donna. "I made a copy!"

"I'm going to kick your ass!" The redhead threatened.

"Donna — Donna, take them down first." Eric reached for her arm. "You know Billy's mom, if she finds out they're your underwear, she won't let you into church again."

"I'll have them stone you!" Kelso shouted, like if he assumed he would scare her. (Eric did not stand a chance in holding Donna back.) "_Slut_!"

"That's it, you're dead!" Donna yelled, pushing Eric aside as she fought her way towards Kelso. But just before both of them can storm out of the kitchen to battle it outside, the sound of a _clink, clink, clink_ was heard on the tiled floor of the kitchen.

"That's her!" Kelso bellowed, all eyes landing on the stranger invading the Formans home.


	3. Package Of Mysteries

**Chapter Three: Package of Mysteries **

And just as it seemed that the world had stopped for the tiniest fragment of a second, something inside Michael Kelso rose; sending a sense of tingles crawling at the pit of his stomach. It was something that he had felt once upon a time ago. It was a strange sensation that only two people have made him feel in his lifetime.

"Get out the way!" But as soon as it had come, it went away. Kelso shoved Fez out of the way as the foreigner started taking steps towards the stranger.

"_Kelso_!" Eric interjected, balancing Fez after Kelso sent him colliding into his scrawny, weak chest.

"Hello there." Kelso batted his eyelashes, not paying attention to his friend. "Welcome to my house. I'm here to fulfill any service you may need."

The brunette woman raised her eyebrow, calculating the situation before her. And just as she examined the man's features, she took a step deeper into the kitchen.

"You better hope I don't tell Brooke that you're throwing yourself at other chicks." Donna said to Kelso, still eyeing the woman with a bit of suspicion. It was almost like Donna was waiting for an excuse to do something, like swing the broom at her if she was here to start trouble. "_Again," _she added firmly.

"I was just saying hello!" Kelso shouted back at the redhead, throwing her a would-you-shut-up-you're-ruining-it look. "God, Donna! I'm just trying to be polite."

"You are not polite, Michael," catching everyone off guard, the brunette spoke. Her voice sent flashes of memories to everyone around; triggering the different emotions they used to feel when they heard that voice. One that they haven't heard in years. "You've never been."

Donna's emerald eyes widened, her body filling up with a sense of relief as she saw the woman standing inside the kitchen. Finally here, finally back home. "Jackie!" She practically squealed, launching herself forward as Kelso waddled back in his shock. "I'd knew you would come, Jackie! I knew it!"

The small woman slammed a hand on the counter, gripping it to stabilize herself as the redhead almost knocked her to the ground with the force of her hug. "Donna," she said quietly, a twisted feeling pouring itself inside Jacqueline Burkhart's chest. It was staggering, painful even, as her senses filled up with that almost musky scent Donna had always had. Her eyes began to burn as she lost herself in Donna's red hair; her throat felt thick with nostalgia.

She took a deep inhale, recognizing the symptoms of when the body wants to breakdown, kind of like when the soul needs to cry. She didn't think that after all these years she could still feel any warmth for the redhead, because she was sure she hated Donna, but right now a part of her just wanted to hold on to the hug. She just wanted to embrace her with all the strength she had left in her petite body and just cry. And cry to a _friend_—but she didn't.

She couldn't.

"_Jackie_?" Coming back to life, the other four in the Formans kitchen stopped their gaping of the brunette.

"My goddess!" Giving a low bow, Fez passed the still-shocked Kelso and pushed the redhead out of the way as he opened his arms to the brunette. "You're back, you're back." He pulled her into a hug, his voice also reaching an octave too high like Donna's had. "Four years, four years," he repeated slowly, sniffing her hair as he clung on to her. The smell of lavender invaded his nostrils—just the way Fez had remembered it all this time.

Fez let out a sob, making Donna raise her eyebrow in discomfort.

"Fez," Jackie said as she patted his back awkwardly, the same blank tone in her voice that she had used when she had greeted the redhead.

"Well, _damn_, Jackie!" Kelso finally reacted, knowing that he had most certainly recognized her. (Well, his heart had.) He knew that butterfly-effect he felt ripple inside of him could only be caused by her; or his daughter, but the little girl wasn't around.

Staring at the scene, hugs crossing the room like it was Christmas or someone had just bought a large stash for every one of them, Hyde narrowed his eyes behind his glasses. Everything inside of him started shutting off like someone had turned down his power-switch."Forman," he called his almost-brother.

Not being able to help himself to the smile that had crawled onto his face, only God knows why, Eric turned to Hyde. "What?" He asked, regretting it the second he had.

"You lied to me, man," Hyde said, noticing the smile on Eric's face deflating quickly. "You could have given me a heads up," he continued, watching as Kelso and Fez fought over the brunette like she was a JC-Penny magazine and they had just spotted a nipple in the bra section. (The morons.)

"Hyde,"Eric sighed. "What are you talking about, man, I _told_ you this was going to happen."

"No." Hyde pressed his sunglasses harder against this face.

"Yes," Eric replied, crossing his arms.

"Forman, no you didn't," the curly-haired man hissed, aiming a punch at his brother's skinny arm. "If you did, I would not be standing here."

Eric frowned, rubbing the bruise that was going to form in a few minutes. "Hyde, Donna and I told you yesterday night, remember? You came home from the bar, and before you passed out in the basement, we told you that Donna had managed to track Jackie down in Chicago." Eric took a step closer to Hyde, looking firm. "Come on, Hyde, you knew one day this would happen...She was going to come home sooner or later, and what better time than now?"

Hyde shook his head, his fro staying perfectly in place as he continued to scowl. "Man, you told me when I was drunk? No freaking wonder I don't remember, you jackass!" He punched Eric again.

"What the — of course we told you when you were drunk!" Eric threw the punch back. "We weren't going to risk you throwing a fit when you were perfectly sober. We didn't want you ruining this."

"Whatever, man." Hyde rolled his eyes, knowing that Eric couldn't see it anyway."You and Donna played me shady, I will remember that, Forman."

"Just deal with the fact that she's here, Hyde. And for once, can you just _try_ and be nice to her? Look, I know it's going to be uncomfortable, or whatever, but you've done this before. She probably won't be staying for a long time, forget what happened before, and just pretend like she never mattered to you," Eric suggested to his best friend, his voice still low as he could hear Fez bombarding the brunette with questions. "Pretend like she isn't here, or that she's that girl you never had anything to say to. Just be cool."

Hyde breathed in, not being able to fully grasp that she was actually here. How could he? Jackie had actually shown up after years of being MIA from Point Place. He had pictured different scenarios of how he would react when she returned—mostly when he was totally baked—but one question that he had never truly answered to himself was what was supposed to happen to _him_ now that she was back?

But he didn't have time to ponder that at the moment, so he cleared his throat and grunted lowly. "I can do that."

Eric nodded. _Good, good. We don't need more drama in this place._

"Well if it isn't the devil." Turning back to the crowd, Eric found Fez pulling on Kelso's hair as he walked over to the guest.

"Share, you son of a bitch!" Fez snapped, trying to pry Kelso off of Jackie.

"How was hell?" Forman asked, not acknowledging the fight between his friends as he extended his hand out to the brunette. "Did you see Nixon down there?"

Jacqueline gave him a blank look, trying not to let out a laugh of how accurate he was being—she _had_ been to hell. "It's good to see you, Eric," she said sincerely, pushing his hand away and going in for a hug. "How was Africa?"

Donna pressed her lips into a tight line, seeing that sparkle that she so selfishly hated in her boyfriend's eyes when he reminisced.

Feeling slightly surprised by the hug he was getting from the brunette, Eric smiled at her as she pulled herself quickly from his arms. "It was great, Jackie, you wouldn't even begin to believe it." He poked her shoulder, still grinning. "Hot as hell, you should visit it some time. You'd feel right at home."

Jackie tried to smile back. "Tempting as that sounds, it's the windy city for me," she whispered, her eyebrows knitting together for a second. But in the next, she was looking back at Eric. "I'm glad you had a great time, Eric."

Donna and Eric shared a look, both of them skeptical by the sound of honesty in the brunette's voice. "Thanks, Jackie."

Nodding and feeling the tension of the room, Jacqueline could hear the unanswered questions Fez had asked her still invading her ears. She knew that she was going to have to figure something out to say to them. She should have thought twice about coming, she thought to herself, already feeling the regret. She knew perfectly well that the people around her weren't easily distracted by anything, and if they wanted to find something out, after a few stupid remarks and investigations, they _found out_.

And through the dizzy thoughts circling her already too-crowded brain, Jackie looked up at the wrong time; her eyes connected with a blue that she hadn't seen in years. She saw Steven Hyde leaning against the kitchen's swinging-door, looking composed and solid. Just looking at the sunglasses on his face sent flashes of memory through her, shocks and surges of past pain reliving inside her skin as she took a step toward him. (This was something she should have thought about too.)

"Hey, Hyde."

Everyone turned to the curly-haired man, the silence becoming more pronounced.

_So that's how its going to be?_, Hyde thought as he let her voice sink into his ears. However, instead of getting the shivers of annoyance and irritation he always got from her, he felt nothing. There was no hatred polling yet.

Hyde nodded at his ex-girlfriend, his way of a response. There wasn't much he could say to her was there? Eric had been right, he had to control his anger. He needed to figure out what he was going to say at the same time while acting like his past hadn't just walked through the door.

"So, Jackie—"Donna spoke loudly, trying to distract everyone from the tension in the air from the two former lovers. (After all, it was no surprise that they had unresolved matters that could lead to each others murder, and Donna was not about to spend the day helping one of them hide the others body.) "How about we take this reunion to the living room?"

"I call Red's chair!" Kelso shouted, following behind Donna and Jackie. He pushed Hyde out of the way as he attempted to pass at the same time. "Move it."

"It's like a Kennedy came to visit," Hyde grunted at his brother, the last two left in the kitchen.

Jackie watched Kelso launch himself onto the pea-colored chair, and her eyes started burning as she took a good look at the room. It had been way too long for her, but nothing was different for the Formans house. All of the pictures were there, the glass-grapes in the center of the coffee table, the organ by the window. It was like time had not passed for them.

"Feels like home, huh, Jackie?" Donna asked, smiling hopefully at the silence that had invaded the woman.

The brunette nodded. _My old home._ "...It's been a long time," she murmured."But things change, don't they?"

"You should have the answer to that," Donna replied, grabbing her old friend's hand and pulling her down to sit between her and Eric on the couch. "Point Place is Point Place, Jackie. Always has been, always will be. Especially for the people that stayed."

Jacqueline could hear the accusation in the redhead's voice, knowing that she was getting around to something she did not want to touch.

"But you — _you_ left," Donna's voice came out low and firm. "What's been happening for the past four years?"

"Eric," the brunette interrupted Donna, turning away from her piercing green eyes. "I...I know that it took me a while to get here, _years_, and I really need to apologize for it." She reached for his hand, looking at the skin of his knuckles instead of his eyes. "I'm sorry I couldn't be here before, but...I just want to let you know that I always thought about her...I'm really sorry."

Eric nodded, trying not to mistake the woman's sincerity with pity. "Hey, listen, you're here now, Jackie, and that makes up for it."

"I just can't believe this happened," Jackie continued in a small voice, still focused on his hand as she felt tears pushing their way out. It took all of her strength to stop them at the lashes, not wanting to cry in front of these people again. She had sworn she would never do that again. "Mrs. Forman was always just so healthy. Despite the menopause, even, she was always moving. There was nothing she couldn't do...She was always finding ways to stay useful, either by cooking or cleaning something."

"...Yeah," Eric mumbled, nostalgia increasing inside of him as he felt his hand grow warm by Jackie's hold. "She was invincible."

"No one saw it coming," Donna said, seeing her boyfriend's expression twist with sadness and regret. "The first year of the symptoms, the doctors had said it was some kind of _curable_ tumor. They promised that they could get rid of it with a simple operation, that she was going to be fine. Well, two years after the surgery the symptoms started again, and this time it was developed cancer by the time they checked her again. There was no guarantees that they would stop it."

"Good thing we have them, huh? Perfectly accurate, the bastards," Eric hissed under his breath.

Jackie looked up at him, bringing her other hand towards the one she was already holding. "I..erm..." She stopped, clearing her throat. There was nothing to say to that, and she knew it. They had placed their faith in the doctors of Wisconsin and they had failed everyone who loved Mrs. Forman. She couldn't comfort Eric because anything she would say would be double-sided. She could tell him that it's not the doctors fault, but then again they had promised success. She couldn't tell him to believe in the strength of his mother because to him she was borderline dead.

In the silence that once again had taken the old group of friends, Hyde zeroed in on Jackie and Eric's intertwined hands. Finding it odd and unnatural; like knowing his ex was capable of feeling sympathy for others.

"Everything seem to be going fine for about a year. She continued to be her usually bubbly self; laughing and joking around with us, baking us cookies and everything. She had even made plans with Midge to go visit her in California," Donna continued, not bothered by the show of affection Jackie was showing towards her boyfriend.

After all, she knew perfectly well how Jackie felt for Mrs. Forman. The woman had been like a maternal figure for everyone in the group, even for her. And Jackie couldn't be ungrateful to the fact that Mrs. Forman had always been there for her, trying to help her out as much as she could. And when the tramp-of-her-mother had taken off again, Mrs. Forman was the one who always cooked an extra patch of pancakes for the brunette. It was like she knew that she needed the guidance because a girl always needed her mom, after all.

"She started getting really tired out of nowhere," Fez mumbled sadly. "She wouldn't get out of bed, and she wouldn't laugh anymore. And I tried bringing the latest gossip to her, but not even that worked. She just looked like she was in pain."

Hyde frowned at the foreigner. "She _was_ in pain, man."

Donna narrowed her teary eyes at him. "Then she slipped into a coma, and that's how it's pretty much been since then. No changes, no signs of responding to the medication. The doctors just didn't say anything anymore."

Jackie squeezed Eric's hand, but turned to face Donna. "In all of this, where is Laurie?"

The room filled with scoffs and muttered insults.

"Laurie bailed." Donna rolled her eyes, her mind playing the image of a blonde storming out the front door with her luggage and a silent-promise to never return. "She was here when the surgery happened, but once she found out that all the symptoms were coming back, she said she couldn't just deal with it, so she left."

"She broke Mrs. Kitty's heart," Fez spoke again, trying to get the attention to him as Donna and Eric hogged it all. (He did miss Jackie too, and he demanded equal amount of attention from her part.) "And she took most of my money with her too, that slut."

"Mister Forman called her when the test results came in and we all found out that it was cancer this time, but she refused to come down," Donna finished for the foreigner. "Last that we know about the ungrateful bitch is that she's somewhere in Washington right now."

"Probably sleeping with a senator," Kelso chimed in.

Despite the guilt she had been feeling since they started talking about Mrs. Forman's case, Jackie felt a bit of it resolve away. At least she had showed up, years late, but she came back to Point Place, and that made her better than Laurie. (Once again.) "Thanks for calling me, Donna...I would have not forgiven..._thanks_."

The redhead smiled at the comment. "It was a slow day when we finally got a clue where you were. It was about two months ago, Eric and I were watching that new channel when we happened to be paying really close attention to the credits rolling by in the end."

"Imagine our surprise, the devil had made a name for herself." Eric smiled, bringing Jackie's attention to him as this time he squeezed her hand. "Jacqueline Burkhart, Executive Producer of WGN-TV."

"Yes, yes, you've made it big, goddess." Fez smiled proudly from his seat, eating a chocolate bar he had taken out from the pocket of his tight jeans.

"Your personnel are really well trained. You have no idea how long it took me to get through the reception."

Jacqueline looked away from the redheaded and Fez. "Yeah, well, erm...it gets hectic, you know? Before coming here, I was casting women for a new talk-show that our channel is producing. It gets intense sometimes, and I tell my assistants to hold the calls when I'm working."

"Who would have thought you would have made it such a long way, Jacks?" Kelso pushed the strands of hair from his face, smiling hugely at her as he called her by the old nickname. "You were just a silly little girl with dreams of being on television, and now you are a small, hot woman in charge of one of the most important networks in Chicago."

Eric furrowed his eyebrows. "Nice one, Kelso."

"What?" Kelso eyed him back, confused by the irritated tone in his voice. "I said she was hot."

"Anyway, besides being an executive producer and all that swell stuff," Eric let go of Jackie's hand, convincing himself that Hyde was glaring at him from behind his aviator-glasses, "you still have to tell us what has been of you for the past four years."

Jacqueline stiffened. "I don't want to talk about it, Eric."

"Oh, come on, why not? You've been on your own without a word to any of us in a long time, you have the most to say from all of us. Besides—I can't believe I'm saying this—but, I actually _want_ to know what you have been up to, devil." Forman smirked at her.

The brunette shook her head. "No, I'm fine, really."

"Got that right." Michael sent a wink at her.

"Hey, come on, Jackie. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. We are never going to promise our full attention ever again."

But before she got cornered into speaking about things that were better left unsaid and hidden from them, the doorbell rang.

"Fez, the door."

"Oh, sure, just because I'm brown, huh?" Fez glared at Donna, slapping down the hand she had waved at him. "You get it, you whore. That will teach you to abandon Fez in his time of need! Now I won't be walking for another two days, and it will all be on your head!"

"Get bent." Donna scowled, punching Fez on the shoulder as she got up from her place on the couch.

"Is this the Forman residence?"And as Donna opened the door lazily, a husky voice entered the living room. And as it had, it made Jacqueline's heart stop; goosebumps taking over her skin.

Donna looked at the attractive man standing on the other side of the door, completely captivated by the need to blush and giggle like a Sunday-school girl. She could not deny that the man was gorgeous; tall and perfectly built. She could see the muscles of his arms through the light-blue button-up shirt he was wearing, not to mention the outline of some abs she was already picturing in her mind.

She cleared her throat, looking directly into the green eyes of the man. (Oh, the dirty things she would do to him if she was asleep—or if Eric was not sitting somewhere behind her.) "_Hi," _she giggled, pushing her red hair behind her ears. "Yeah, this is the Formans house."

The man gave her a smile. "Sorry to be a bother, but is—"

Stopping the man from continuing, and Donna from registering his manly voice for a daydream later, a little body pushed past him; shoving Donna out of the way too as she heard the kid shout, "_Mommy_!"

The man frowned, looking at the back of the figure of the little boy. "Aidan, come here this instant." But as the kid ignored the aggravated tone of his father, the man had to compose himself as Donna stared wide-eyed. "Excuse him, he usually never acts like this."

"Mommy, you're here!" But again, Donna was startled into a confused silence as the little boy jumped onto the couch, landing on Jackie's lap.

Eric leaped away from his seat like someone had thrown a bucket of cold water at him. Surprise took over everyone who stared at the boy hugging Jackie by the shoulders; holding on for dear life.

Jackie tensed up, her body sitting up completely straight. Her cheeks turning a deep red as the boy held on and she could hear the man by the door breathe in with irritation. "Aidan, baby, those are not the manners of entering someone's home."

And as she addressed him like in fact she did know the boy, everyone gaped at the brunette they used to know so well. Their jaws dropped and eyes budged out like they had just seen Red Forman dancing in a tutu and singing them a jolly tune.

"_What the hell_?"

And what the hell indeed—someone had a lot of explaining to do.


	4. Burying the Castle

**Chapter Four: Burying the Castle**

It was becoming a day of mysteries and surprises, and it was starting to exhaust the people of Jacqueline Burkhart's past.

Eric and Donna stared completely dumbfounded at the brunette and the kid. This little boy could _possibly_ be the child of Jackie — Jackie of all the people in the world. (Needless to say, they expected a bastard kid to show up from Laurie Forman's side, not the girl who cringed at the mere thought about getting stretch-marks due to pregnancy.)

"Jackie, what the hell?" Donna was the first to speak again, her face could not have looked more in shock than it was in that instant. Her eyebrows looked like they were a centimeter of jumping off of her face, and her jaw dislocating itself for how low it hung. "Is that..._your_ son?"

Fez had a bit of un-swallowed chocolate smeared on the right corner of his mouth, looking like a deer caught in the headlights with its pants down. "No, no," he mumbled to himself. "No way."

Through everyone's stares of confusion, there was one person that remained perfectly still; Steven Hyde. The man just remained neutral, not really wrapping his mind around one idea, let alone all the ones he was being presented with the more his ex-girlfriend stayed near. He had practiced and trained himself to stay completely Zen through moments that could put him in overload, and this was one of them.

"Aidan—" Taking the liberty to enter the Formans home since no one had bothered to pay any attention to him due to their puzzled expressions, the man called for the little boy. Stopping in front of him, his face stern and ready to scold, the man spoke with firmness. "Didn't I ask you to wait in the car while I came for your mother?"

The boy hid his face into Jackie's shoulder, covering the quivering lip on his innocent face and the fear crawling into his system.

Swallowing down the same fear the little boy was trying to hide, Jackie threw her best smile at the man. "It's okay, Andrew. I'm sure Aidan was just a little too excited, he won't do it again."

The man called Andrew cleared his throat, his green eyes narrowing at the brunette as she patted the boy's back. It was almost as if she was soothing him from his rule-breaking. "Rules are rules, Jacqueline, and I had asked him to stay in the car," he began, his voice coming out as rough and cool as he had spoken to the child. "Do you plan to let all of his disobedience pass and reward him for it?"

"I just wanted to see my mommy," Aidan mumbled into Jackie's flesh, still hidden from the hallow voice.

The man's frowned deepened, and he reached to grab the back collar of the boy's shirt. "Andrew," Jackie's face turned red, her back stiffer than when the two newcomers had arrived. She could still sense all the confusion in the air, her past waiting for answers to the questions she never planned to answer in the first place. (But the day was not going how she planned, for that matter. She was supposed to get in and get out—like a hazy one-nightstand.) "These are my... old friends. Remember I talked about them before?"

Understanding the perturbed emotion in the brunette's face, Andrew nodded solemnly. "Hello," he said, looking up at the people around and giving them a strained smile. "Andrew Taylor, pleasure to finally meet you all."

Donna grinned, forgetting her anger and shock as the handsome man extended his hand out to her. "Hi, pleasure to meet you too." A light pink color was visible on her cheeks as she left Eric's side, holding on to the man's hand longer than it was customary. "I'm Donna Pinciotti, and welcome to Wisconsin," she said like a stewardess on a cheap airline.

"Nice to meet you, Donna, I heard a lot about you." The man smiled, and the redhead giggled loudly. "Great things, I assure you."

Pushing the giggling woman aside, Eric extended his skinny hand towards the man. "Hey, I'm Eric Forman. Please excuse my blushing girlfriend, she doesn't get out much as you can tell."

"_Eric_!" Donna gaped, stopping her giggle-fit as soon as Kelso starting laughing loudly in the background.

"Forman, huh?" Andrew turned to the brunette, both of them sharing a private look. One that made her look down at the carpet of the Formans living room, hugging the little boy closer to her instantly. "Jacqueline told me all about your mother, I do hope she gets better."

Jackie swallowed the knot in her throat roughly, her head had began to spin from all the talking in the room.

"...Thanks," Eric said hesitantly, nodding to the man. "It's really great to have Jackie back home for a bit, I know that my mom will..._would _liked to have seen her here after such a long time. It does mean a lot."

"She wouldn't have wanted it any other way," Andrew spoke, referring to the brunette as he looked down at her. He crossed his arms as he waited for her to pick her gaze off of the floor and face the people in the room like he was. "My wife can be a bit stubborn most of the time, and this was not an exception. She refused to have her mind changed about this. Jacqueline wanted to come here because of the strong affection she has for your parents, and once she decided, we had to drop work and Aidan's school, but I am glad she is here then."

Jackie's heart banged against her chest, and she could hear the next round of stunned silence ring in her ears. (Honestly, this really was not how she had pictured what taking a trip to memory-lane was going to be.)

"_Ah_!" Kelso stood from the pea-colored armchair, looking horrified.

"I'm sorry, excuse me—did you just say _wife_?" Donna gaped, the mysteries continuing to pool out and collect themselves in the living room floor.

"Goddess, _no_!" Fez practically cried, his dark-eyes looking appalled. (Well, there went all of his fantasies and dreams of ever becoming Mister Jackie Burkhart.) "You're married? How can you do this to me?"

Through the foreigner's hissy-fit, Hyde felt like this time he was being suffocated. He no longer felt the tension in the room; his body had gone numb and he swore in that very second that he felt something inside him burst into flames—or break itself before he froze.

Jackie looked up nervously through her eyelashes, giving Fez a tiny, apologetic smile. "Andrew, this is Fez," she whispered to her husband. "When I used to live here, him and I were really good friends. I've known him since he came in through our high school's student-exchange program."

"Oh, don't you try to sweet-talk your way out of this one!" Fez huffed, feeling actually really hurt. He could not understand why Jackie had disappeared for four years, or why she had no contact with any of them for all that time. He had found it strange when an entire day passed and she had not shown up at the basement, but after Kelso had told them what happened at the hotel, he had found it even more bizarre that she had not communicated with them in within a week. (He had been sure she would be calling everyday until Hyde forgave her, but _nothing_.)

She never appeared again.

After a while of thinking about it—because he was the only one blessed with the gift of sensitivity—Fez understood the reason of her staying away, but not the distance she was keeping from them. (_Especially him_.) He had never hurt her, and he knew the need she had to she use him for gossip and up to date reports of the gang. But nothing. He would have done anything for her if only she had asked, and now she had a whole new life away from everyone; a life that didn't include him.

Who was he suppose to admire from afar and praise the floor they walked on now? Donna? _Ha_. He thinks not.

"Nice to meet you." Andrew extended his hand to the tanned-skin man.

"Yeah, yeah." Fez ignored the man's would-be handshake. "Get lost, new guy." He plopped himself down on the open seat next to Jackie, crossing his arms in irritation.

Donna walked forward, hands on her waist. "I...I don't even know what to say now."

Kelso stood too, raising his palm out at the redhead. "Donna, allow me." Pushing the redhead in back of him, Michael aimed a quick smile at his ex-girlfriend. And once he cleared his throat, stretched his arms, cracked his neck, he erased the smile. "_Daaaamn_, Jackie!" He exclaimed more dramatically than Donna could ever achieve if she had tried. "I gave you the best years of my life and named you my Betsy's godmother, and this is what I get? Four years of nothing, and then you show up with a son and husband? _Selfish_!"

Hyde snorted, his body breaking through its frozen state as everything started was married and she had it kid. Yet again, it seemed that Jackie Burkhart had gotten everything she wanted. Just like always. All she had to do was leave Point Place to have her perfect life—away from all of them and the place she had called home. (Of course she had stayed hidden from them. They would have ended up interfering with her now picture-perfect life, and he knew that Jackie was well-aware that new things at Point Place did not last forever.)

_ Four freaking years, man. _Four_. Now she comes back and...and - whatever._ All Hyde could come up with at the moment was another snort, bringing the attention to him that his subconscious did not want.

Jackie looked past Michael, glad to see that Hyde still had his sunglasses on face; covering those blue-eyes that could not be mistaken anywhere. "Andrew, those are Michael and Hyde. They're Eric's best friends."

Both men scowled at that comment. (So now they were _just_ Eric's friends?)

"Hello."

"Hey," Kelso and Hyde said in unison, their tones flat and indifferent. Exactly how Jackie's husband had greeted them, their minds already decided about their impression of the guy: they did not like him. Both for different reasons, of course.

"Getting married had always been Jackie's dream, you know?" Donna directed her words at Andrew Taylor, hoping to find some answers to her friend's current life from him since the woman was not going to be giving them any. "She was like a little girl at a toy store whenever we passed the bridal shop at the mall," she continued. "I can't believe she never mentioned that she got married."

The man smiled at her, and Donna could not help but giggle lightly through her straight face. "It took a little persuasion from my part, but she accepted to marry me after a while of dating. It was the best choice I have ever made, she looked absolutely beautiful on our wedding day." He put a hand on top his wife's head, smoothing down her brown waves as she looked back down. Avoiding to meet his gaze. "I could have not gotten luckier with Jacqueline."

"Wow." Donna grinned hugely like a fool. "That's so romantic." She giggled again. "I was going to get married too, but Eric practically left me at the alter."

"_Burn_!" Kelso shouted, settling himself on the armchair once more.

Forman's eyes shot open. "Donna, how can—I came back, didn't I?"

"And then he ran away to Africa," the redhead finished, ignoring her boyfriend as Andrew shook his head.

"Safari burn! Donna's on fire!"

"Shut up, Kelso," Eric snapped, punching his arm.

All the talk about marriage—about Jackie's secret wedding—started to enrage Hyde. It started to make him wonder if his ex's husband knew that _he_ had bailed on Jackie when she wanted to get married years back. And that thought then led to a realization Hyde did not want to ever stumbled onto. That the man's life with Jackie by his side, with the kid, with the perfect life the brunette had always envisioned for herself, _could_ have been his. (But instead, he had ran too.)

"Whatever," Hyde grunted to himself, tearing his back away from the wall he was leaning on. "Well, I'm leaving. I should have opened the record store three hours ago. See you guys later." Before Eric could give him a glare, Hyde turned to Andrew; knowing that he would be getting a lecture from him and Donna when he returned. (And he was not about to let them ruin the high he was already anticipating he would be in when he returned.) "Nice meeting you, man."

Rolling her eyes at Hyde's departure, Donna turned to Jackie. "Wow, Jackie, I bet that was the wedding of the decade, right? I am so sorry I missed it, but I'm sure the invitation got lost along the way, huh?"

"Donna, as much as I enjoy a good fight between you and Jackie, if Darth Vader comes down, threatening to put his foot in someone's ass, _you_ are taking over Fez's punishment." He warned his girlfriend, putting a hand on her shoulder as her voice had started to rise.

The redhead frowned, scoffing. "_Fine_."

"Don't upset yourself, Donna," Andrew spoke to the woman, making her perk up instantly. "The wedding ceremony was nothing fancy, it was just us. We were in a hurry to get married, and Jacqueline did not want to wait any longer."

_If that's what you can call it_, Jackie retorted in her head. Something that she would never dream to say aloud. "Honestly, Donna, Andrew's right. It was nothing worth attending to." Running her fingers through her child's hair, and forcing herself to pull a smile on her face, the brunette looked at her husband. "It was simple, but what mattered was just him and I."

Raising his arm in the air, Michael looked at Jackie impatiently. "Excuse me, Mrs. Taylor," he said mockingly, a light tone of irritation in his voice. "If we would have attended your wedding, would we have been part of it or would we have ended up seating with the butt-ugly people?"

Jackie narrowed her eyes, her skin crawling due to Michael's question. "What would you have been, Michael? A bride's maid?"

Kelso knitted his brows in momentary confusion, and Fez looked in thought. "Well, as handsome as I look in a dress, nothing beats seducing crying-broads needy for attention." He grinned, chuckling to himself. "There's nothing like wedding girls."

Ignoring the bit of the women, Eric looked put-out over Fez's comment. "Fez, buddy, not the dress thing again, okay. You have to let that go, alright? It is not a normal."

"You wore that Sunday-dress too, Eric!" Fez argued.

Kelso widened his eyes at the foreigner. "It was a bet, Fez; for a day. You were supposed to give the dress back, not keep it."

"It flattered my body, you son of a bit—"

"Dude, language!" Eric nodded towards the boy in Jackie's arms. "I will not suffer the consequences of Jackie's wrath if her kid learns to curse from here."

"Oh, shut up," Donna shouted at the guys, pushing them aside as she walked towards her friend. The guys silencing themselves instantly, knowing that there no arguing with the only girl that could kick the crap out of all of them. "Jackie, it was still _your_ wedding!" She crossed her arms, this time truly ticked the more she thought about the situation. "I don't care if it was at city hall, or you made a damn festival out of it! You made a major choice in your life, and we should have been a part of that."

Fez nodded aggressively at that, agreeing in silence.

Donna sighed. "...I thought we were your family."

"You're right," she murmured, her lips barely moving at the complaint. Jackie knew that Donna was right - right about many things. She had longed for a wedding, she had envisioned a majestic wedding that would have blown Princess Diana's out of the water and made it look like a tea-party. She had so many hopes and dreams, all childish, but _hers_. All of them coming from everything pure that lived inside her heart.

But one thing that Jackie Burkhart had learned from life's tough trials, was that nothing ever went according to plan. Her dreams had been snatched away many times that she should have had paid attention to the signs before. Like when she loved Michael Kelso with all her heart, but he had cheated on her; when she forgave him, but he skipped town for two months; when her father had gone to jail, leaving her more alone than he had ever left her before; when she fell in love with Hyde, but he cheated on her too; when she thought she could depend on her mother to help her pick up the pieces to her newly-shattered life, but she abandoned her once more.

Her fairytale dreams were just that—_fictional_. Before she knew it, she had spiraled into reality and lost the hopes of the girl she used to be, of that bossy Wisconsin-girl that was nowhere to be found these days. It was a tragedy after next, and she no longer knew when she had been submerged into living that way; when she no longer recognized the girl in the reflection.

"Jacqueline." Blinking wildly as Andrew's voice rang through her ears, distracting her from her thoughts, the brunette turned away from her old friend. A tiny part of her hoping that Donna had developed mind-reading abilities in the time she had been gone from Point Place. "Jacqueline, did you hear what I just said?"

Jackie blinked again, growing rigid once more as she could feel Donna's contemplating stare piercing holes into her skin. "Um, no. I'm sorry, Andrew, I got lost in a thought."

Her husband frowned. "What about?"

Trying to settle her hectic heartbeat with Aidan's fingers playing with the collar of her jacket, Jackie rubbed her temples quickly. "Nothing in particular, I just got distracted for a few seconds. It's been a while since I thought about the wedding, and then Fez in a dress, Donna being right—"

"Stop talking," the man ordered, and his wife obeyed without a retort. "By the looks of the weather when we were driving up here, this town is going to be caught in a storm pretty soon." He informed her, watching her remain silent. "Did you end up getting that hotel room in Kenosha you had mentioned a few days ago?"

Jackie nodded like a well-trained puppet.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Andrew asked after a long second. "Let's get going. You know how fragile Aidan's immune system is right now, you don't want to risk our son getting another bad cold, do you?"

"Sunset won't be until a few hours, Andrew. Couldn't we just stay for a bit? I wanted to see Mister Forman."

Knowing that he couldn't truly express his frustration due to his wife's eavesdropping friends, Andrew cleared his throat in an uncomfortable way. "_Jacqueline," _was all he said, knowing that that would get the point across.

"I'll...I'll just say my goodbyes, then," the brunette spoke instantly, patting her son's back as he stopped his playing with her collar.

"Alright, I'll be running the heater in the car." He nodded at her approvingly, then turned to her gaping friends. "Pleasure finally meeting all of you, hope to see you again before we leave."

"Yeah," Kelso said simply, a little stunned over the encounter he had just witnessed and overheard.

Before Donna could giggle and blush again, Eric got in her way before the man headed towards the door. "Thanks for coming, I truly appreciate it."

"Yeah, we hope to see Jackie tomorrow." Donna peeked over her boyfriend's shoulder, smiling.

Andrew Taylor gave them a polite smile, looking away from them without a response. "Hurry," he said to his wife as he exited out the Formans door.

"Oh, my god!" Donna squealed the moment the door closed, jumping lightly on her feet as the brunette looked slightly disturbed over her reaction. "You have to come back tomorrow, please, please. We'll have a girls day, you have to tell me about your husband, Jackie! He is _gorgeous_."

"He was not,"Kelso scoffed, crossing his legs as Eric frowned at his girlfriend's comment. "He is rich-boy pretty, it was all the fancy clothing and mumbo-jumbo words that messed with your head. Now, I know what good-looking is, and it is _me_!"

"It's true." Fez nodded, taking a bite of another chocolate bar.

Take a trip back years ago, and Jackie would have been hopping along with Donna. It was rare when the redhead squealed, swooned, jumped, and demanded a girls day out, and she would have jumped on the wagon the moment it came around. But it was not like that anymore, and what Jackie wanted the most was to avoid any possible moment of being alone with Donna. She knew it would come with a price, and that was having Donna attempt to break into the vault where she kept her secrets.

And she was not about to let that happen - She was prepared to defend her most valuable secret, and she did not care of she had to hurt people in the process. "I've got to go," she said uneasily, avoiding the redhead's green eyes. "Andrew hates waiting, and he is right about exposing my son like that."

"Yeah, and you don't want to upset the master." Lifting his hand towards his face, so the light of the living room could gleam over the manicure Brooke gave him, Kelso pretended like he had said nothing.

But everyone heard him speak. "What was that, Michael?" Jackie asked.

"You heard me." Kelso shrugged, finding that his left pinky was especially sparkly. "The Jackie I know would have kicked someone on the leg and made herself be heard. Instead you caved like Forman without sex."

Jackie bit her lip for a second, catching the expression of agreement on Eric's face. "You don't know anything, Michael, like always. Andrew's my husband, I got to listen to what he says, and I can't control him like I did you. It's different now."

Kelso shrugged indifferently again, not answering back to that.

_'The Jackie I know.' _But Donna's mind was racing with his previous comment, making her wonder about the differences Jackie had come back with. She had not let herself truly see them when Jackie had first arrived, she was just so relieved that the petite brunette had shown up; so grateful that for once she had listened to something she had asked for. But now...who was this woman?

"Anyway," Jackie cleared her throat uncomfortably, her heartbeat slowing down as she settled her previous anger. (It had been a while since she got upset at Michael, and she felt exhausted by doing so.) "I'll see you guys later." She said, trying to pick her tiny body up from the couch while cradling her son.

Sneering at the brunette's attempt, Eric moved past Donna. "Need help there, Jackie?"

Without tending to, Jackie laughed at that. "Oh, Eric, he'll snap your back in half."

The scrawny-looking man was about to throw an insult at Jackie's way—because she didn't know he had wrestled a goat once in Africa—when he was distracted by a tiny voice. "I don't want to go, mommy."Aidan Taylor removed his face from his mother's shoulder, peering up at her with scared eyes. "I didn't mean to."

"We'll talk soon, baby." She patted his back, steadying herself on the carpeted-floor as she spoke to her son. "Just rest, it was a long trip from Chicago. I bet you're tired, huh?"

Aidan shook his head. "Daddy's g-going to be mad 'cause I l-left the car."

Hating to see the glitter of sadness in his face, Jackie repressed a sigh by smiling at her son. "I promise I'll talk to him, Aidan. Now, come on. You don't want to be sick again, do you?"

"'Kay, mommy." Aidan replied, pushing himself off of his mother's shaky arm and standing on his own. "Will we get to go on a field trip here?"

Jackie laughed again, tickling the boy's side. "You would like that, huh?" Seeing the smile appear on Aidan's face, the woman gave in instantly. "Well, since you will be out of school for a couple of days, I can't see why you can't have a look where I grew up. You'll like it, I promise. There's a lot of kids you can play with, I'm sure."

"Pinky promise?" Aidan asked, stretching his little finger towards his mother.

"Your mom can't keep promises." Kelso huffed, jumping out of the green chair again. "Look, kid, _I_ promise to take you sight-seeing."He reached forward and closed the boy's hand, and tapped the fist with his lightly. "We are gonna have a blast, watch."

Not totally jumping on board with the same excitement the man was spewing, Aidan looked curiously at him. "Who are you?"

"I'm your uncle Kelso!" Michael stated in a matter-of-a-fact sort of way, surprising Jackie as he threw his exaggerated wink at her. "And I'm going to make sure you have an adventure here, so when you get back to Chicago you can tell your friends that your cool uncle Kelso showed you the greatest pranks ever invented. How does that sound? I've got endless supply of firecrackers here, kid, it'll blow your mind!"

"...And a part of him too." Forman muttered.

"Cool." Aidan grinned, now equally as exited.

"_And,_" Approaching the boy, Fez extended him what was left of his second chocolate bar. (The biggest sacrifice he has done for anyone.) "Your uncle Fez—that would be me—will buy lots of candy until our stomachs hurt."

"Plus, we will be testing out most of the pranks on him too." Kelso said, ruffling the boy's hair.

In the midst of the discussion of plans, Donna stared at the boy calculatingly. Looking deeply at his features now that she got a good view of him; feeling positive that there was something about the kid that was off.

_Beep. Beep._

"...I have to go." Jackie spoke, puling her son from her ex's crazy schemes. "See you later." As another honk vibrated on the windows, Jackie smiled awkwardly at the people before her. "We'll be here bright and early." She said, taking Aidan's hand and walking hurriedly towards the door.

"The pranks won't hurt, right, Kelso?" Fez asked innocently, turning away from the closing door as his dream girl of a once-upon-a-time-ago was not visible anymore. "Last prank you pulled left me with a scar - _on my ass_."

Kelso laughed, remembering the glory of that past incident. "No worries, buddy, we'll find a a new target." He lied smoothly to the foreigner. "You just rest up, we have a big day planned tomorrow."

"Eric- -"Scooting away from the babbling-fools, Donna pushed her boyfriend far from his friends. "Did you feel something just now?"

"Yeah, but I've been feeling that all morning." He said, smiling suggestively.

"Not that, you pig." She slapped him beside the head, crossing her arms over her chest as his eyes wandered off for a second. "I mean that there is something wrong with Jackie."

"Hasn't there _always_ been something wrong with Jackie?"

But before Donna could throw another hit at his head, she was pushed towards the Formans couch as Fez flew past her; screaming as Kelso pulled out a firecracker and chased after him. "_Wuss!"_

* * *

**AN: OKay, so I think there was a BIG misunderstanding that I did not catch earlier on in this remake. And it is the time that has passed.**

**Chapter 2 said Eric had been in Africa for 1 year, but Jackie has been gone for 4. So, for all of you who think it's only been a year or 2, CORRECTION. It's been 4 lol.**

**Thank you. :)  
**


	5. Holding On

**Chapter Five: Holding On**

"Hello again." As two glass doors opened, a blonde smiled suggestively. Her eyelashes were batting in an odd way as she converted the original smile into something more seductive. Something she had been doing time and time again for what seemed like years now.

But completely submerged in his teachings of being Zen, Hyde glanced once at the blonde without any interest. "Hey," he replied flatly, taking a seat on a metallic chair inside the room he walked into.

"I didn't expect to see you here today," the blonde said casually, leaning over the reception counter she was sitting behind of. "It's been a while since you've been spotted around here, Steven, that I'm surprised."

The curly-haired man grunted a bit at the woman's use of his first name. It irritated him when she did call him that; that wasn't his name, well it was, but it wasn't what people usually called him. He was just Hyde,and that's the way he liked it. (Steven sounded like a goody-too-shoes who was a momma's-boy and wore turtle-necks and baked cookies.) "It's Hyde," he corrected her, his arms crossed over his chest.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Hyde," she amended, giggling his tone away. (He had a rotten attitude, but she was attracted to his devil-may-care way that she could forgive him for it anytime.) "I'm really glad you stopped by today."

Hiding behind his glasses, Hyde threw the blonde an annoyed look. He rolled his eyes as she smiled expectantly, like if she was so sure he was here to shout his love for her. "Yeah."

Her attempts of flirting never went unnoticed by him and he knew what she was getting at. It was just too bad that she wasn't his type—but hey, there was once a time where dumb-blondes were nothing but his type. Easy to get without even breaking a sweat. But that changed, and it was not that Hyde didn't think she was hot, it had to do with the fact of the way he _felt_ every time he saw her. It was all about the circumstances they were both in that forbade him from caring about the blonde even in the slightest. (Because he was sure if the situation was different that he would be sitting there, trying to come up with excuses of why he hadn't called her after their intense one-night stand.)

_Ring. Ring. Ring._

Sighing, the blonde settled herself back on her chair as the phone rang. "Hang on," she said to Hyde, almost like she thought they were having a conversation.

Rolling his eyes again, Hyde took his eyes away from the blonde answering the phone in the reception. He tried to make himself comfortable in the chair he was sitting on, but then he remembered that this place was always far from comfortable. He never wanted to be there, never wanted to have to spend hours there in search for something that wasn't coming. But despise the fact that his ass got numb after thirty minutes from sitting in the metallic chair, the annoying blonde, or the people pacing up and down, something kept Steven Hyde in his chair all the time.

"Hyde!"

Pausing the conversation she was having on the phone, the blonde receptionist frowned as she saw a tanned-skinned man race his way inside the glass doors. She had been hoping she could have gotten at least a good twenty-minutes talking to Steven, but she never seemed to have much luck with him. Every time she got him sitting on that chair on his own, one of his idiot friends appeared out of thin air.

"Fez, man." Hyde smirked clearly as his friend came into complete view.

"I was calling you!"The foreigner yelled at his friend as he was taking a deep breath. "Didn't you hear me, you bastard?" He threw him a glare, his lungs still sucking in all the oxygen he could get.

"Sorry, I didn't hear you," Hyde said, stilling smirking as he noticed the deep red in his friend's face and the sweat dripping from his forehead.

Fez glared more, still panting from the run he had taken when he chased after his friend. "I was chasing after your car, you son of a bitch!"

"Really?" Hyde let out a chuckle, trying to hold in the rest of his laughter.

"Yes!"

"Seriously?" Hyde continued to play with him.

"I ran into your bumper!"

And this time Hyde laughed loudly. He replayed the scene in his head when he had made a stop at a red-light and Fez had collided with the back of his El Camino; knocking out the foreigner for a few seconds until traffic started moving again. "Yeah, I saw you through the review-mirror."

"And you couldn't stop?" Fez hissed, mumbling a few incoherent sentences in his native tongue as Hyde shook his head.

"Shh!" Standing up from her chair, the blonde receptionist pointed at a grand sign that hung on one of the walls of the room.

Fez turned to the blonde, ignoring the sign that asked for the people present to be respectful and courteous to others. "Oh, don't shush me, Becky!"

"Shh," Becky repeated to the foreigner, making sure to give him a glare in the process as she sat back down on her seat. "Keep quiet or get out," he added threateningly. "I _will _call security again."

"Bitch," Fez mumbled in defeat, taking a seat next to the curly-haired man.

"Do you two have to fight every time?" Hyde asked, back in his irritated state as the foreigner kept glaring in his dramatic way. "Why the hell were you following me anyways? I thought you would be at the Formans enjoying the company of years-past?"

"Kelso was chasing me with a firecracker. I've already felt the second-degree burn that that does to people, and there is no way in hell that I'm letting Kelso shove a firecracker down my pants again. I couldn't even sit down for a month," Fez's voice squeaked towards the end, still being able to recall the times when he couldn't squeeze into his tight pants. (Oh, it had been four weeks of wearing sweats.)

"Whatever." Hyde waved his friend's memory away, not particularly caring. "So, you decided to cut your reunion with..._her_ short?" He pressed his sunglasses onto his face, not catching that he was bringing that brunette back into the conversation. Instead he turned to the blonde, watching her write something down on a sheet of paper, with her ears sticking out. Carefully listening to the conversation.

"I would never," Fez clarified, looking outraged that Hyde would even suggest that he would ditch Jackie for a second. (Hadn't he been in love with her since he met her? Why would he lose any precious seconded with the girl?) "But she had already left by the time Kelso decided to attack me with the firecracker. I think she was headed to Kenosha, her husband wanted to leave already."

Hyde fidgeted on his chair, feeling awkward at the mention of Jackie's husband. (Seriously, he never thought a guy would condemn himself to such label.) "Why were they going there? I thought I was going to see her midget-self all over the Formans."

"They had reservations at a hotel already." Fez shrugged.

"Oh."

"Yeah." Fez sighed, not noticing the tensed silence Hyde had submerged himself into. "Do you want to know something, Hyde?"

"No," the man with the sunglasses said, his foot shaking as uncomfortable thoughts started invading his head.

"I don't like him." Fez ignored him. "Her husband."

Hyde swallowed, his heart beating a little faster as he remembered something he wish he hadn't. "Why not?" He asked, trying to keep his voice indifferent as possible. Not wanting the foreigner to see that he was slightly glad that there was others that felt the same way for Jackie's new man. It had nothing to do with her, it was just Hyde's dislike for people in general.

"There's something off about him," Fez replied. "Like the taste of that chocolate candy Kelso gave me when he came back from a trip to the dog-food company."

Hyde scoffed. "Obviously there is something wrong about him, man. He married Jackie. He was probably an experiment of the Government gone wrong and he was released to the streets of Chicago."

Fez raised his eyebrow, a little wary about his goddess's husband being a mutant. But knowing the crap that Hyde was always mumbling about, he just settled on sighing again. _Oh, that Hyde. _"Don't you think she seems different?"

Hyde narrowed his eyes, not replying.

Pulling out a bag of m&m's, Fez continued with his previous statement. "There is something off with her too. Or do you think its because she finally has everything she has ever wanted that she has nothing to complain about now?"

_Damn it_, Hyde thought angrily.

How could he have missed that? How could he not see what was obvious? He just kept analyzing the fact that she was married that he didn't realize that Jacqueline Burkhart, in fact, had everything she ever wanted. She had a husband, a kid, a well-known and high-paying job, she was in the television business, and looked like she was once again wealthy. (And, he had to face it, her looks never fade away either.)

She had gotten her fairy-tale ending.

"Whatever." Hyde grunted, his foot tapping.

"What do you think she has been up to in these four years?" Fez asked, popping a red m&m into his mouth.

"...I don't know, man."

"Do you think she ever planned to come back home?"

"I don't know."

"Do you think she ever tried getting a hold of us?"

"I don't know."

"Do you think she missed us?"

"I don't know."

"Did _you_ miss her?"

"_Fez!_" Hyde turned to glare at his friend, his anger rising high for every damn question the tanned man had asked. "Shut your pie-hole!"

Swallowing the m&m he didn't get a chance to chew, Fez shrunk into his chair. At the moment he was preferring that he had let Kelso and the firecracker catch up to him instead of being in the same room when Hyde was pissed. (He knew Hyde could kick his ass ten times worse than the damage Kelso could do with a year-old firecracker.) "...I was just asking."

"Shh!" Becky exclaimed once more, glaring from the reception. "Fez, I'm not going to tell you again—stop shouting or get out."

"What?" Fez pulled on a momentarily shocked expression. "He was the one yelling!"

"I don't care. Now hush, or I'm getting the security guards."

"Ayy." He caved, leaning back into his chair next to Hyde.

Groaning internally from the crap-of-a-day he was having, Hyde stood from his chair as Fez mumbled nonsense once again. "I'm going inside, man."

"And I'm going to spend my ten dollars on candy from the vending machines," Fez informed as he stood up also. "It's snowing outside, so I guess we are staying here right?"

_Crap. Snow?_ (Of course there would be a blizzard happening, Jackie was back and his day couldn't seem to be getting any worse.) "Yeah," he replied, his voice drenched in Zen. "Until the snow clears up, man."

"I'll get you a coffee, then," Fez said before he stalked away, sticking his tongue out at Becky as he left the waiting room.

"—There is no changes, Steven," Becky called before the curly-haired man could leave behind the foreigner. "Everything is exactly the same as it was a month ago."

_That's not true. _"Thanks," was all Hyde said to the blonde nurse as he walked out of the room as well. Making a left from the hallway outside, he walked towards the reserved section of the hospital building.

And as he grew more pissed off every step that he took, he knew there was one solid reason why he always put up with everything lately: Mrs. Forman.

She had always been there for Hyde no matter the circumstance, the place, or time. Her advice and love were unconditional for him; he was like another son to her after all. And although Hyde was too proud to say he needed help, advice, or some support, he always counted on Mrs. Forman to notice that he needed it. He got some sense of comfort from her, that something warm his life needed sometimes. And he liked that, the comfort. It was a family feeling he got when Mrs. Forman stroked his curly hair, told him what she thought, and called him 'my son' when she spoke about him to others; sometimes even to him.

_She needs to get better... _

Hyde opened the door slowly, his chest giving him a lurching pull as he saw the woman he considered his mother laying on a white bed. The colorless sheets tightly wrapped around her, holding her in place. There was tubes in her mouth, a heart-monitor beeping on her side that were also connected to other wires she had on her.

"Mrs. Forman." Hyde paused, closing the door lightly before heading towards the bed. He took a seat on an unoccupied chair. A chair where Red Forman spent every minute, every hour, every day in on a daily basis—but not anymore. (The doctors forbade him from staying there too long now, and although he refused to follow the rules, calling every doctor a dumbass, Mister Forman was now at home. Wishing he could be sitting in the same chair Hyde sat on.)

Breathing in a puff of air he desperately needed, Hyde removed his sunglasses as he stared at the woman. "Mom," he spoke hesitantly to the comatose lady, whispering gently like he was afraid someone would walk in and hear him. "She's back." But the only interruption and mocking sound came from the heart-monitor. Just a _beep, beep, beep_, getting in his way. "Jackie came home after four years...And even after four years, I feel...I still hate her."

But as no response came, Hyde rested his back against the chair. He looked at Mrs. Forman and let his head drift away; picturing the perfect life Jackie had now.

A life he never got a chance to give her.

**X**

There was a loud _crash_—a cheap floral vase smashing against the carpet floor; the pieces spreading across with other clutter.

"I'm sorry!" And joining the clutter of broken glass, Jackie Burkhart cried as her back hit the floor. "I'm sorry!" She pleaded again, her ears only hearing the sound of Aidan's cries form from a corner on the other side of the room. "I'm s-sorry.."

Stepping into view, Andrew Taylor placed a hand on his forehead, frowning at the crumpled brunette. "I told you this was going to happen," his voice was low, but it was impregnated with the fury of a mad man. "I told you that you had no business coming back here, but you just don't listen."

"Daddy, no!" Aidan let out a fearful scream, watching in horror as his father gave his mother a kick to the stomach. Leaving her gasping for air.

"Didn't I tell you," he kicked harder, ignoring the shout of his son, "that I didn't want to have to come to this place?" He shouted louder, ignoring every whimper of pain his wife gave with every kick she received. "_Didn't I_?"

Not being able to take the sight, Aidan ran towards his mother. "Mommy!"

But as soon as Aidan crossed the line of where his parents were, Andrew pushed the boy back. "Answer me, Jacqueline!"

"Yes," the brunette cried. "Yes, you did, Andrew. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," she continued, trying her hardest not to scream out in pain. She had learned how _not _to long ago; she had trained her body not to feel it anymore. To go to a state of numbness whenever this happened, where she blocked out the pain that her husband caused her. But today, however, there was something different. Every hit, every kick pained her so much more. It was harder than she has ever felt it before and she couldn't understand why.

Why did it hurt so much more at the moment? Why did she cry today?

"Do you see what you cause?" Andrew reached for his wife's slender shoulders, pulling her up from the floor. "I warned you about coming here, Jacqueline," he hissed, throwing her against the bed in his new flash of anger. "But like always you had to go against my wishes. You see what happens when you disobey me? Do you see what you make me do?"

"I-I...I needed to come, Andrew." Tears poured from the brunette's beautiful bright-eyes, answering her husband before he demanded it. "I just...I just needed to."

"And you think that leaving Aidan with the baby-sitter and running off on me would be a clever plan to fulfill your needs?" He shouted again, slapping roughly across the face. "Don't you ever dare run out on me again, Jacqueline!"

"Stop, daddy!" Aidan took charge towards the bed, picking himself off from the corner his father had secluded him in. "Stop, please!" He grabbed onto his father's legs, trying his hardest to pull the man away from his mother. In his head, in his young mind, he knew it was effortless, but he would never stop trying. (Even if he felt like he was fighting a mountain to move out of the way.)

"_Aidan!_" Andrew yelled, tearing himself away from the brunette as his son clung on to his knees with his tiny hands. "Didn't I tell you to wait in the corner?" He backhanded the little boy, making him stumble back and his head hit the floor from the impact.

And feeling like she was the one who was hit on the head, Jackie bolted up from the bed. Her eyes wide in a motherly protection that she never knew how to define; it was just something so powerful that shook her whenever she was about to lose it. "Don't touch him!" Jacqueline screamed with her own fury. (She could handle Andrew's abuse towards her, but not to her kid. Never to him.) "Don't hurt him, Andrew!"

_Don't touch him_, she pleaded in her head as a silence took over the hotel room.

A minute marked itself on the dimly-lit clock on the nightstand when Andrew reached for his coat. "I hope you've learned your lesson." He spat, taking out his keys from the pocket of his coat and marching out of the room.

"...Aidan." Jacqueline sobbed as she dropped herself on the floor, clutching and dragging her little boy towards her. "Are you okay, baby?" Her heart broke—every single day it broke.

She desperately wanted to believe that she didn't have one anymore, that her heart was gone from every hit she received. She didn't want to feel anything anymore, not anything her heart had to offer, that is. But even as she wished for it, she couldn't get it. (How else would she love her son if her heart disappeared?)

"Are _you _okay?" Aidan asked, a few tears sparkling in his eyes as he nodded his answer to his mother.

The brunette spilled a few more tears, but quickly brushed them away from her face. "I'm okay, Aidan," she managed to say, holding in everything she felt. "...I'm okay."

The little boy sighed in relief, reaching his slender arms towards his mother. Embracing her in a tight hug, both of them still on the floor and clinging onto each other. "Then I'm okay, mommy."

He had come to understand in his short life that living the way he did for as long as he could remember - well as long as the memory of an almost five year-old can go - that it was days like these were he knew he couldn't be a kid. That he had to somehow find a way to grow up faster, to forget the toys and the games, he needed to be strong and help. He needed to figure out a way to leave the weakness of a kid behind and fight.

Fight for his mother; to save themselves from the mess they lived in.


	6. Butterfly Wings

**Chapter Six: Butterfly Wings**

_'Hello, how can I help you?'_

_ 'I-I'm looking...I'm looking for a position in your law firm.'_

_ 'As?'_

_ At the hesitance from the elderly receptionist, a brunette cleared her throat uncomfortably; fixing her damp coat over her tiny shoulders. It had been sprinkling when she had gotten off of the bus, and before she could crawl into a cab and get away from the light rain, she had remembered that she had nothing._

_ Nothing to survive off of._

_'...Anything.' The brunette responded, clearing her throat again as she caught sight of her frizzy hair through the majestic window behind the reception counter. _

_ Keeping her hands folded gracefully on the marbled desk, the receptionist took another synchronizing look at the petite girl before her; taking in all of the girl's aspect. Everything from the pale color of her skin, the blankness in her eyes, and the dark gray-cloud over her head. Her misery accompanying her everywhere she went. '- -You must be new in town, I assume.' The woman smiled._

_ '...Yeah.'_

_ 'Where are you from?' The elder woman asked, still smiling politely as the brunette shivered in her stance._

_ 'Wisconsin.' The brunette responded, growing irritated that the woman had forgotten her paperwork and appeared to be too interested in her. 'Point Place, Wisconsin.'_

_ 'Chicago is so far away, dear, are you sure your family won't miss you?'_

_ Silence took place between the two for a few seconds - until the brunette began shaking her mess-of-a-hair and breathing away the hurt that her questioned had secretly caused her. 'I don't have any family.'_

_'...Oh.' Looking uncomfortable, the woman nodded her head once and pulled out a sheet from a pile around her desk. 'We are looking for a cleaning personnel at the moment. That's all that is open, I'm afraid.'_

_ 'I'll take it.' The brunette spoke quickly, taking the first thing off the list. 'It's fine, I just...I need something to get me started.'_

_ 'Very well.' The receptionist knitted her eyebrows. 'I will - Oh! Andrew, darling, can you come here for a second?'_

_ Appearing through the same foggy, glass doors that the brunette had walked through moments ago, a man smiled back at the receptionist as he walked over to the counter. 'Good evening, Maggie.'_

_ Smiling at the husky voice of the man, the receptionist blushed lightly at the younger man. 'Are you headed up to the fifth floor, Andrew?'_

_ 'Yes, ma'am.'_

_'Do me a favor, darling, take this girl up to see Frank, please. She'll need to talk to him about the position he has open.' The woman pointed to the brunette. 'What is your name, sweetheart?'_

_ 'Jackie.' The brunette cleared her throat once again._

_ In the moment that Chicago had bared rain and colorless moments, the brunette found a shade of something bright in the man's green-eyes in the instant he turned to face her. There was just something about that smile, the way he looked at her. It was inviting - and the beginning of a trap._

_ 'Jacqueline- -'Andrew spoke, extending his palm out to the petite brunette. 'Such a beautiful name.'_

Through the bedroom window, Jackie watched the dim rays of the sun reflect off of the glass; bouncing off on the screen of the small television. Her eyes wide open, but barely with any attention focused on the things happening outside. She had been laying sorely on that hotel-bed for hours; with dried tear-tracks on her rosy cheeks as she felt the pressure of her exhaustion behind her pupils. She blinked slowly, watching memories play on the glass window; showing her were her mistakes had come from, how they had started.

"Mmm."

With a soft grace of air hitting her collar-bone, Jacqueline felt a tight embrace on her slender shoulders that made her go rigid.

"Ehm."

Jacqueline blinked again at the sound of a different sound. Of a little whine. Her eyes traveling towards a cot on the right-side of the hotel room where a small light brown-haired boy laid perfectly still, with nothing but the expression of the most innocent kid upon his face pale face. His body relaxed and calm - the only time he was at ease. And after last night's incident, Jackie was sure that her little boy was dreaming about something peaceful; of moments where he could enjoy the care-free attitude of any child his age.

Something his mother could not give him even though she tried everyday of his life.

And because of that, tears formed in Jacqueline Burkhart's eyes. Because she was as useless as everyone had said before; because she could never just do everything right; because one way or another she messed up someone's life; someone's as valuables and pure as her son's.

_You're life's greatest gift, Aidan. And I wish...I'm sorry. God should have sent you to someone else….To a much better mother. Where you could have been having a beautiful life with a family just as perfect as you._

"- -Good morning, beautiful." With the sound of a strong yawn echoing off the tacky-wallpaper walls, Jackie flinched as Andrew hugged her tighter into him. His arms were securely around her small frame, keeping her locked into his chest like if it was the most natural thing on the planet. Like it was a form of affection from husband and wife; of a love that was true.

But it had been long ago that Jackie stopped believing that it was a form of affection. It was just a way he made sure she didn't escape while they slept, just another way to cling onto her and control her. Another form of imprisonment.

"What time is it?" Andrew asked as he fixed his chin upon his wife's head. Not noticing when the brunette wrinkled her nose at the smell of his breath. Of the traces of alcohol he had consumed yesterday night. (A smell that had faded throughout time, becoming less and less noticeable as he slept.)

She frowned, forgetting to reply as she re-encountered the sight of him bursting in through the door and scaring the living daylights out of her.

"Jacqueline, what time is it?" Her husband asked again, no hints of anger or irritation in his voice. Just the tone of a perfectly content man; of someone who had woken up from the calmest sleep and found the love of his life sleeping beautifully next to him. The essence of something sweet in his voice, like he was living the most majestic life. "Babe?" He kissed her head softly. "Are you awake?"

Grimacing at the touch that felt like fire consummating her skull, Jackie inhaled deeply as she pulled on one of her feigned expressions. "- -It's about eight." She replied in the same tone, a captivating smile on her face as she turned to look up at the man with bright eyes. No shock, no anger, no retorts expressing themselves in her face because she knew the routine perfectly well.

And this is how they worked.

He would fill himself with a deadly rage, beat her senseless, argue with her, tear her down, aim another punch or two, walk out the door, show up hours later, sleep together, and once they awoke - it was like nothing happened.

So it was no surprise that Andrew's delicate tone was echoing inside her eardrums, or that his handsome face held the most dazzling smile. She knew that Andrew was insane in so many levels, but after four years of the same mindless torture, Jackie knew how to go along with it like it was something common in her days.

"I have to go to Milwaukee." He groaned as he stretched, yawning again as he looked at the sunrays entering through the hotel window. "My appointment is in a couple of hours, and I still need to get some information from a different office before I go in. They expect everything to be organized and ready to go, I can't show up like a rookie."

"...You're going now?" Jackie asked as she tried to suppress her rapid heartbeat and the smile that was glittering up to her eyes at the thought of escaping him.

Andrew nodded once, his arms still around her. "If I want to get everything done correctly, I do have to leave soon. I'm sorry, Jacqueline." He gave her another kiss. " I would have liked to spend the day with you and our son, I know how much this place means to you. But I suppose we'll have to take a raincheck on it, right?"

Thankful that she was still somewhat hidden into his naked chest, Jackie rolled her eyes at the statement. (He sure was a different type of psycho.)

"A day in the life of the old Jacqueline Burkhart." Andrew chuckled, shaking his head like the thought was the silliest of them all. Like he could not picture the sight of his wife before him; almost like it was hard to believe she _existed_ before he entered and graced her life.

"The old me is gone." The brunette snapped instantly like a reflex. Regretting it as soon as it slipped out of her lips. She didn't want Andrew to know how far the damage he had caused went, or for him to see the damage that she kept inside of her long before he stomped on everything else she used to be. "- -I'm no cheerleader anymore." She added quickly, blinking her eyes at him as she continued to fake her smile. "I'm a married woman now, with beautiful little boy, and a great job on television. That small-town girl faded away."

Andrew returned the smile, liking the wording she had chosen for her explanation. Like she was acknowledging and remembering that before him she was nothing. "Good thing at that, you were a mess before." He said in a soft tone, no harm intended in his head. "But it doesn't matter to me. Do you know why, Jacqueline?" He placed his fingers underneath her chin, lightly rubbing her skin there with his fingertips as he deepened his smile. (A sight so dazzling, that not even Jackie could deny that it was amazing. But they do say, that the more brilliant things are the most likely it is to be twisted.)

"...Why?" She asked.

" Because I love you." His emerald-colored eyes looked deeply into hers, with a spark of sincerity that made Jackie's skin crawl with hysteria. "You love me too, right?" He asked, pulling her chin up towards him and capturing her lips in a kiss.

Cringing at the repulsive taste, Jackie forced herself to wait three more seconds before she pulled herself away with another feigned expression of adoration for the man. "Of course I love you too."

"- -Mommy?" And before the brunette could be placed in another situation that was complete torture to her, Jackie's ears perked up at the sound of a tiny voice from across the room. There was a small yawn, and the sound of stretching coming from the cot. "You awake, mommy?"

Pushing herself away from Andrew's chest, Jackie smiled grandly and truly at the little boy looking up at her. "Sure am, baby. Good morning." Her eyes glittered as the little dirty-blonde boy smiled at her in return. "Did you sleep well?"

"Good morning, mommy." Aidan kept his radiant smile as he nodded in response to her previous question, but he paused for a few seconds as he noticed the figure next to his mother. "...Good morning, daddy." He said in a doubtful voice, a little wave of fear crawling up his spine.

Sitting up from his position on the bed, Andrew smiled at the boy as well. "Good morning, son."

And almost as if he had set off an explosion of fireworks that lit up the boy's life, Aidan launched himself off of his cot from the happy-tone in his father's voice. "Hi, daddy!" He exclaimed, tingles rushing inside of him.

Whenever his father was in a good mood, Aidan took advantage of it before it faded away. After all, he knew that those loving moods did not last forever, and there was nothing like pretending he lived with a normal family. Nothing like thriving on the moments were he could believe that his father _did_ love him, that his father did love their family and he was normal. That _they_ were normal.

"Aidan, baby, careful." Jackie laughed as Aidan reached their bed, bounced off the mattress and landed on top of her. Making her and Andrew fall on their backs again as the little boy clung onto them.

"Where do you think he gets all this energy?" Andrew asked, chuckling as well as he tickled Aidan on his sides as they began to playfully wrestle with one another. "Half of the time it's like he is on a sugar-rush."

At the sound of Aidan's laughter bouncing off the walls, Jackie hardened her expression at the two play-fighting. "...From me." She murmured seriously; answering his question without getting heard. _Because nothing pure like that can come from you_, she added in thought.

"Daddy - Daddy, no!" Aidan shouted happily as he crawled away from his father, gasping for air as his pale cheeks burned red from all the laughter taking over his little body "Mommy, help!" He went inside of the sheets, trying to hide from the tickle-attack his father was giving him. "I can't breathe!"

"Alright, alright." Andrew chuckled, laying back against his pillow as he took in as much air as he could. "I give up, you win."

"You bettcha!"Aidan popped his head out of the sheets, smiling triumphantly as he laid between both of his parents. "A Taylor always wins! Right, daddy?"

Jackie heart crushed silently.

"A Taylor always wins." Andrew nodded, agreeing with the boy. "Don't forget that, Aidan. That's a life lesson for you, son. You are getting older and you must remember that you come from a long generation of overachievers."

Not being able to take the disappointed that was seeping into her body, Jackie turned on her side to look at her son. Smiling at him as the flush on his cheeks slowly faded. "But remember, Aidan, you are my baby." And she attacked his forehead with kisses.

"_Mom_." Aidan complained teasingly as he pushed her away slightly. "I'm a man." He added, laughing as Jackie disagreed with him as she pulled on his footy-pajamas.

"- -Alright, that's enough play-fighting for today." Andrew threw his legs over the sheets, instantly stopping the fun between mother and son. " I have to be out the door in the next thirty minutes, so I'm going to jump in the shower quickly. Jacqueline, get my things ready."

"Aw." Aidan fussed, looking disappointed by the second. "You're not going to stay with us, daddy?"

"Sorry, kiddo." Andrew shrugged indifferently at the boy, pulling out a towel from his suitcase. "As much as I would love to go sight-seeing with your mother and you, I have an important meeting in Milwaukee that can't be canceled."

Aidan frowned lightly. "_Oh_."

"Cheer up, kid." Andrew said at the look of disappointment on his son's face. "If everything goes well during this meeting, things will change from here on out. Promise."

The dirty-blonde little boy glanced at his mother, watching her give him a let-it-go look. Because, after all, Aidan knew perfectly well that his father's job came first over many things. (Even him.) He knew that his father had put a lot of effort to end up where he was at; to end up one of the best lawyers in his firm. "Okay." He mumbled, feeling like second place all over again.

"I won't have time to eat anything here, so don't bother ordering anything." Andrew said to his wife, leaning towards her and placing another kiss to the top of her head. "I'll find something on my way there."

Nodding obediently, Jackie slithered out of her side of the bed and headed straight to the paperwork her husband had on a nightstand. "Would you like some breakfast, Aidan?" She asked, hurriedly stacking everything into Andrew's briefcase.

Standing up on his tiny feet, Aidan looked at his mother from his stand on top of the hotel bed. Not bothering to answer until she looked at him.

"Aidan?" The brunette called, quickly looking up through her eyelashes at her four year-old. "What?" She asked, raising her eyebrow as he just stood there. "Are you okay, baby?"

As the woman headed to stand in front of him, both of them the same height due to his tall-stand on the mattress, Aidan pressed his small palm against his mothers' cheek. His blue-eyes looking seriously at her; something so grave in them that she felt waves of fear race beneath her skin.

She was terrified - as a mother - that Aidan was not developing as slowly as a child does. That he had the power to look at Jackie with such intensity that she did not expect to see living in his eyes until he was much, much older.

"Dad's happy, isn't he, mommy." Aidan said in a small voice, his ears paying close attention to the running water coming from the bathroom inside the hotel-room.

Jackie tried to put on a smile for her son. "I know, Aidan."

"I want him to be happy all the time, mommy." The boy whispered, still looking deep into the brunette's eyes. "I like when he hugs me."

Knowing that someday she was going to go straight to hell for all of her sins; for letting Aidan experience the rejection of a parent like she had once upon a time ago, Jackie felt her heart break at his hopeful eyes. "- -How about you start getting ready while I get all your dad's things ready for his meeting?"

"Ready for what, mommy?" He asked as she pulled him off of the mattress and onto the floor again.

Ruffling his wavy-blondish hair, Jackie ushered him to his side of the room. "I do believe your Uncle Kelso promised you a day filled with adventure."

"Oh, yeah!" Aidan gaped, remembering the people he had met before the night incident with his parents. "I can't believe I forgot! Uncle Fez said that- -" He stopped.

"What is it?" The petite woman asked through a wince of pain. Her stomach and back aching as she turned in a wrong angle; her skin pulling on the bruises that were already breathing on her pale skin.

"Are they your brothers?" He asked, sitting on his cot and looking curiously at his mother. "I've never met any of your family before, mommy." He informed.

"Um." She pulled a loose strand of hair behind her ear, looking uncomfortable as she heard the water from the shower stop. "I'll explain later, alright, honey?" She replied awkwardly,

never giving it much thought that the day Aidan met everyone was the day she was going to have to explain a lot of things to her son. (Things that she desperately wanted to pretend like it never happened.)

"Okay." Aidan responded, pulling out a small pair of jeans from his overnight-bag his dad had packed him. "Maybe daddy can come with us tomorrow, and we can have a family-day, huh, mommy?"

Not being able to look at the innocent boy any longer, Jackie turned around rapidly as she continued to organize her husband's things. "Sure, baby." She replied with a tone so distant. And even though as she tried going along with all of his childhood dreams, Jackie knew perfectly well that Aidan was not easily fooled by her phony expressions or care-free statements. The boy knew well enough what happened around him - he was present most of the time during the beatings Jackie would get. His young mind had developed fast because of it; because of every hit and shout. And because of that, she knew that Aidan was well aware how this worked.

How the next day of a psychical-attack from his father was going to go.

Aidan was aware that the smiles, the sweet-tone, the tiniest amount of dedicated time was nothing but an act from his father. That the affection that shone in the man's emerald-eyes was nothing that could last more than two days, and that pretty soon it will end. That one of his usual blows would come out of the darkness. Hitting his mother or him.

And that was something Jackie was not ever going to forgive herself for. The fact that her son's mental stability was jerked back and forth; between loving-father and the one who threw him against floors.

But meanwhile, letting go of the pain and of the degrading, she could not find it in herself to stand in the middle of her sons' pretend happiness. Especially when it was all he had.

Even if it killed her inside to watch him build a perfect family that was never going to come but in his dreams.


	7. The Sudden Silence of Nightmares

**Chapter Seven : The Sudden Silence of Nightmares**

A giggle, a page turned. "…Oh, that Luke."

Entering through the kitchen's sliding-door, Donna gave a little eye-roll as she caught her boyfriend looking over one of his many comic books - one that he has read many times before. "Good morning, Eric." She said instead of a clever retort, smiling brightly.

Removing his eyes from one of the greatest battles printed on paper, Eric smiled weirdly back as he noticed Donna's glow. He wasn't really sure why she was smiling, but he knew he liked it. Ever since his mother had been diagnosed with cancer, Donna had been there every step of the way. She had suffered along with her, and she deserved that radiance. "Well, your chipper today, I wonder why."

Shrugging, Donna headed towards the table and took his uneaten PopTarts as she pulled out a chair for herself. "It's a beautiful day."

Shaking his head as he smirked, Eric leaned back on the chair. "It's freezing outside, Donna. And unless you came here with the mind to take advantage of my body-heat for your sexual needs, then I know that your happiness is due to a very small midget."

Letting out a chuckle or two, Donna frowned at her boyfriend. "Don't be so mean to Jackie, Eric. If she hears you she'll probably end up running away again."

"Yeah, and we don't want that." And even though his voice dripped with sarcasm, Eric actually meant it. It had been years since Jackie had been in Point Place, since he last saw her. And he knows, that as unnatural and bizarre as that is, he wanted the whole gang together again. "But, honestly, why are you so happy she's back?"

Donna rolled her eyes at the dumbass question, picking at the PopTart as her boyfriend shrugged at her look; not getting her expression . "Well assuming that the answer is _obvious_, I'll lay it down for you, Forman." She grunted, shaking her red hair. "Jackie was…_is _my best friend and I haven't seen her in four years, I missed her…. And, well…

"Look, I just…I just want to make amends with her, alright? She was gone for years, Eric, _years_…I was…I was filled with panic and worry, she had no one but us, but she was gone…I wasn't exactly nice to her when she disappeared, I just regret that…"

Seeing the intense guilt building behind Donna's green-eyes, Eric decided to return the support she had always given him; until that very day still. He reached for her hand, squeezing it as he could tell she was about to spill unwanted tears. "You were always a good friend to her, Donna."

But the redhead shook her head again. "…No, Eric, I really wasn't." She took in a ragged breath. "All she wanted to do when you left was to cheer me up, to lift my spirits.. And after the first month you were gone, and you broke up with me…her constant phone calls, positive notes, and visits grew much more, just so I wouldn't breakdown…She did all of that even though she was dying inside from her own problems. And what did I do?"

She didn't finish, there was no need to. (After all, Eric was aware no one really treated Jackie like she mattered.)

He sighed, squeezing her hand again.

He had never heard much of the story, especially since it seemed that no one really wanted to talk about it - all he knew was that she was gone. When he came back, he was greeted by everyone except her, and at first he was glad she wasn't there; he just ended up cracking jokes about how she was out destroying some guy's life or doing she-devil like things.

The rest had laughed, but no one's smiles reached their faces, and so he got the hint. It was not cool to talk about Jackie, even though he had already known from the recordings his mother sent him that Hyde and her had ended her relationship. ( He was externally happy for Hyde at first, he had finally gotten rid of the devil. Yet, he knew that she strangely completed him.)

So after letting the Jackie-subject rest for a day, he found that that day turned into a week; that week into two; those two into a month; that month into another; then four years passed until she entered the door of his home just the day before.

"I'm sure that she forgave you, Donna." Eric finally spoke, finding his voice through that emotions in the air. "It's Jackie, come on. You're her best friend too."

"It's just…" She paused, inhaling. "Sometimes I feel like I was the last straw, I was her last disappointment…Maybe if I would have been there for her, helped in something, she would have never left."

"Think about it this way, Donna- -" Scooting his chair close to her, Eric looked sincerely into her emerald eyes. "If she would have stayed, Jackie would not have what she has now. Leaving Point Place gave her all that, a husband and a family. Maybe…Maybe it was meant for her to leave this place in order to find her true happiness. You can't feel guilty about that, she's happy."

_I don't believe that_, Donna thought to herself, giving her boyfriend a weak smile in return. "Do you honestly believe that?"

"I do- -"

"- -Oh, that's a bunch of bullhonkey!" Interrupting Eric's attempt to cheer Donna up and get rid of her guilt, so maybe he could get some since she finished his breakfast, Michael Kelso stood on the other side of the sliding-door; holding hands with a little girl. "She could have had all of that here, not off thinking she's better than us."

The couple rolled their eyes.

Ignoring the ever-blabber, Donna smiled automatically as he watched her friend drag in his daughter, her nose-tip bright red from the chilly weather outside. "Hey, Betsy."

"Little Kelso." With a mocking-sense, Eric narrowed his eyes at the girl, giving her a solemn nod.

And as the little girl flushed from the attention she was getting - because her little cocky-heart was not up and running that early in the morning, she hid a little behind her father. "Come on, Bets, what do you say to the ugly people?"

"Good morning, Aunt Donna and Uncle Eric." Betsy obliged, a grand smile on her face as the couple rolled their eyes again.

"That's a good girl, Betsy." Kelso said to his daughter with a grand smile, patting her head like she was a little puppy and she had finally performed a trick. "Now, why don't you head down to the basement and have yourself a Popsicle, just don't tell your mom about it."

"I know, blame it on Uncle Fez if she doesn't believe me." Betsy waved off her father's comment, skipping towards that hall that led to that infamous basement her father had practically grown up in.

Looking really annoyed, Donna frowned at her idiot-of-a-friend. "Kelso, do you really think popsicles in this weather will be good for her?" The man shrugged and she deepened her frown. "Where the hell is Brooke, and how can she leave you alone with Betsy after last time's accident?"

"Brooke is out of town for some Librarian-crap, so I'm in charge of Betsy for these two days she's gone." He replied, jumping on the counter of the kitchen. "I was against it at first, because you know, Fez has been whining how I don't take him out anymore, but it sure beats the damn ride to her mother's in Chicago.

" Besides, the old hag likes to remind me that I don't deserve her daughter and _blah, blah, blah. _She should be thankful her only grandchild is freaking adorable. I mean, look at Betsy! She is one beautiful little girl and that's all thanks to me."

"You moron, she can get sick!" Donna shouted.

Kelso scoffed, swinging his legs back and forth. "Donna, unlike your genetics, us Kelsos are immune to anything."

Even though Eric felt like throwing an insult at his friend, he had to admit he was kind of right. Anything that had been passed down around town had been due to a Kelso, they were the carriers of all the diseases. They couldn't be killed because _they _were the viruses, and God knows there wasn't an antibiotic that can cure that.

And, stupidity was also one of those incurable diseases.

He always has his fun mocking the little Kelso for being, well, Kelso's daughter and everything, but he honestly hoped Betsy did not inherit her father's brain and received the greater genetics that came from Brooke. (Because there can only be enough dumbass-prone people in this town, and Kelso already took up the group.)

But not wanting to get into the over-tiring subject, Eric chose to call Kelso out on the information he had just let slip. "So, Kelso, man, here's a kooky thought - if you practically spend as much time in Point Place as you do in Chicago, seeing as Brooke still tries to stay in touch with her mother, and we all know Jackie has been there ever since she left, are you sure you never ran into her?"

There was silence - Donna had dropped her jaw as Kelso widened his eyes.

"I mean, Brooke's always talking about how you disappear for hours when you are all in Chicago."

Before the redhead could form that gasp that was threatening to come out of her mouth, Kelso shook his head at the two. "No, no. Don't go and try to pin this on me, I had no idea where Jackie was. And even if I had, I would have told you."

Eric put a finger on his lips, analyzing his friend's comment. "That's true, you can't keep a secret."

"_Exactly_." Kelso huffed. "Now, if you ask me, I think all of this mumbo-jumbo has been a part of Jackie's plan all along. I mean, it's obvious she didn't want to be found. Four years without a single phone-call? Without writing back? It's not like Jackie to _not _try and rub it in our faces that she's playing in the big leagues now."

Exchanging contemplative stares, Donna nor Eric could deny that Kelso was making a point.

"Yeah, you seem to forget I was in training to become a cop." Kelso told them as they remained silent. "It was once my job to think like a criminal."

Eric raised his eyebrow. "Until you burned down the school and made a laughing-stock out of yourself? Yeah, we remember that."

"Yeah, well…well- -"

But the rest of Kelso's would-be insult was cut short as Donna spotted two figures approach the sliding-door. "Jackie!" The redhead practically screamed, launching herself off the chair and towards the brunette and the child stuck to her side. "Hey - hi - come in!"

As she had hopped out of her husband's car and smelled the memory of home, Jackie had walked towards the back-way entrance of the Formans kitchen with a smile. A smile that now dissolved as the redhead grinned happily. "Hi." She whispered at her, and then glanced over her to the other two men in the kitchen. "Good morning."

Aidan squeezed his mom's had a little as the adults in the room smiled.

"Aidan, your manners." Jackie looked down at her son, her voice soft.

The little boy blinked up at his mother, confusion on his face. "…But I don't know who they are, mommy." He whispered in an embarrassed way.

"Oh." The brunette felt everyone's stares on her. "Well, baby, this is Eric's house- -" She pointed a polite finger at the skinny-man. "Then there's Donna, and you remember Michael, right?"

The boy nodded once; he could remember that. "Good morning." He said to all the strangers, and then quickly added a, "Thanks for allowing me into your home, Eric."

Eric stared momentarily perplexed at the boy, surprised at how easily he spoke for a kid.

And thinking the same thing, Donna bent slightly down towards Jackie's son. "Wow, Jackie, you raised this kid well." She spoke to the mother but beamed at the son. "Must have let Andrew teach him the manners, right? I don't remember you being this polite when we were kids."

Jackie felt a flame of anger rise inside of her; a flame almost of outrage at her comment. How dare she think that Andrew Taylor taught her son anything pure? That man was a monster hidden beneath attractive flesh, and all she had to praise the demon for was that he helped give life to Aidan. (And that was it.)

"My mommy's really nice." Aidan jumped into the conversation, not knowing why the adults were snickering amongst each other over the redhead's comment. "The nicest."

Kelso laughed a little harder. "Yeah right, kid. Clearly Uncle Kelso has to tell you a few stories about your mom. And most of them involve kicks, shouts, and really colorful words that would be censored if they were on T.V."

Jackie narrowed her eyes at her ex-boyfriend. "Michael, please." She huffed.

And Michael matched her expression, looking at her suspiciously like he had been trained to stare-down a criminal in the interrogation-room. "Hey, Aidan, what do you say we go down to the basement? You can meet your cousin Betsy." He looked away from her, knowing that her defenses were up. (Kinda like when he got her that rubber-chicken for their one year anniversary and she swore she loved it.) "We can even have a popsicle."

Aidan smiled instantly at that. "Can I, mommy?" He asked, looking back up at the brunette woman.

'_Cousin Betsy?' _This was going to be much harder to explain than she thought, than she had hoped she could keep hidden forever.

Jackie had an unsettling feeling in her chest when Aidan couldn't stop talking about his 'Uncle Fez and Kelso' in the car ride to the Formans - it was _fear_. A fear that Aidan would get too wrapped into the family-portrait all these people painted. That he would get sucked into the radiated love they always spewed, that togetherness of family; something Aidan never knew anything about.

She didn't want his little heart to get attached to these people, she didn't want him to hurt when everything faded away and it was time for them to go back to their reality. A place where there was no Uncle Kelso, no cousin Betsy, none of them were there. She didn't want them to break his heart the way they had hers; she couldn't risk Aidan to feel that pain because she knew how hard it was to forget them.

"…Okay." She whispered a little unsure, her heart-shreds tearing into more shreds at his glittering eyes. And having to look away from them, she turned to Kelso. "Don't you give him anything cold, Michael. He's just getting over the flu, and Aidan has a really fragile immune system, I don't want him to get sick. His father will get really upset." (Too much. Like a trip to the doctors would expose the shades of bruises he gives their son.)

"_Fine_." Kelso scoffed, jumping off the counter. "God, what's with you and Donna? Party-poopers!"

"Michael, I'm serious." Jackie called after the man, watching with a frown as he steered her child down the hallway towards their old hang-out place. "Michael! Michael - _ugh_. He's going to give him that popsicle, isn't he?"

Muffling a few chuckles - because it had been too long since she enjoyed a fight between Jackie and Kelso, Donna nodded at her friend. "Yup." But at the frustrated look on Jackie's face, Donna calmed her laughter. " Don't worry, I'll go handle the idiot. I'm sure Betsy has had at least three by now, and I know she'll get sick by the end of the day." And Donna knew how that would end. (With a sniffling Betsy sleeping next to her, a thermometer on the nightstand along with medicine, and Kelso watching reruns of the Million Dollar Man with Eric and Fez.)

"I - Donna." But the redhead had disappeared before Jackie could assign herself to go.

"Relax, Donna can handle it." Making himself heard, Eric stood up from his chair to walk over to the brunette. "She's happy to, honestly."

Jackie kept her expression blank at that. "…Thanks for allowing me to visit again, Eric." She changed the direction of the conversation.

"I sorta had to." Eric joked, but a sincere smile stretched on his face. He was not - he repeats - not about to go and confess that there was this strange bubbling-feeling in his chest when he saw the brunette yesterday. It was kind of a sense of relief, of hope. And he didn't know why, but he now believed what she said all those years ago; about how they would all miss her if she were to leave and never come back. (Sure, it was the idea of heaven back then, and everyone challenged her on that, but in the end she won.) "…But you know." He shrugged, wanting to hug her for completing them now. (The gang back together.) "It's nice of you to stop by, we didn't think you would."

She gave him a withering smile.

And then he did the imaginable, what he had taken a vow never to do - he hugged her.

As he did, Jackie winced as he squeezed the surely-there bruises on her back from yesterday night's beating. But despite that, despite that sting, Jackie hugged him back; almost in desperation. She had always hoped - _before _- that she could establish some sort of friendship with Eric, but she knew it would never happen. Especially not now. But she still hugged him, her eyes burning with tears as he felt like something she hadn't known for a while.

He felt like a friend.

She wanted to shed those tears, cling on to him, tell him her miseries, her pains, the torture she lived in, but she couldn't. She couldn't and she wouldn't. And as her heart rate rose because of that inability to confess her nightmare, a little sob slipped past her lips.

And for rotten-luck on her part, Eric heard it. He lifted his eyebrow, already pulling back to question what that was when the swinging door made a _bang _against the kitchen wall; separating them from their abnormal hug.

"- -What's going on here?"

Grimacing because he had hoped no one would ever know, see, or hear about his embrace with the devil, Eric tried to smile jolly-like at the newcomer. "Well, you're up early, Hyde."

"Yeah, couldn't sleep." Hyde said grumpily, aiming a quick look at the brunette standing quietly beside his adoptive-brother. "Nightmare, you know." He kept his eyes on her, damning her with his gaze. (Of course he would be so unlucky as to see her freaking face that early in the morning.)

Jacqueline pursed her lips together, his eyes a nightmare of her own.

"Hyde." Eric called sternly. "Come on, man, stop."

Turning his glare towards the scrawny-man, Hyde snorted. "She shouldn't be here, Forman, I've already told you that." He frowned more as Eric rolled his eyes. "She needs to go back where she came from, she's not supposed to be here."

"Stop, Hyde. What's your problem, man?"

"- -No, Eric. He's right." Interrupting the man from defending her, Jackie looked at Eric with a somber stare. "Well, what, Eric? It's true, Hyde is right. I shouldn't be here."

At that even Hyde kept his mouth shut, an eyebrow raised; his senses alert. (Waiting for danger to strike and kick him on the shins.)

"Just ignore Hyde, Jackie." Forman shook his head at her. "Of course you're supposed to be here, _we _want you here."

"Oh." Jackie almost furrowed her eyebrows, almost let them see her confusion and her eyes that would have screamed 'No thanks, I rather not be here.' She inhaled lightly, regaining her self-control. "Thanks, Eric, but that's not what I meant." She patted his arm awkwardly and turned to the curly-haired man. "What I meant was that Hyde's right about me being here…standing around and inflecting my presence upon him when I should be staring at someone worth while."

The tension grew instantly, Eric coughed to try and disguise the mocking laughter threatening to come out.

She slid the strap of her purse off her shoulder, carefully setting it down on the counter as she braved herself to look into Hyde's eyes, already taking a step towards him as her heart banged against her chest. Those damn eyes, those damn alluring blue-eyes that she saw everyday, everyday in her memory and never stopped following after her when she slept.

A curse with no cure.

And before she walked past him, she narrowed her bright eyes at him as her resentment rose to severe levels inside her body. (It was all his fault, after all.) "Maybe if you would just pretend like I don't exist and tried to steer clear from me, your bitching would stop and this would go a whole lot smoother."

Just as she crossed the swinging-door, leaving her words to evaporate in the air and into Hyde's fro, Eric burst out laughing.

"Shut up, Forman." Hyde snapped, inhaling and exhaling rapidly.

After another few chuckles, Eric settled himself down. Getting a puff of air as he let the pink of his face wash out. "Look, Hyde, I know you have all this bitterness against Jackie and everything, but for the sake of the gang, can't you just put it aside? Just for a few days, man. It really means a lot to the rest, especially Donna.

"And…well, you know, my mom adored Jackie. Can you at least put your Anti-Jackie movement on a pause for _her_?"

Gritting his teeth, Hyde gave his brother the finger. "Get bent, Forman." And he turned to follow the trail that his ex-girlfriend left behind.

Well, that didn't work.

* * *

**AN: Hey, guys! Well, first off, I wanna say how sorry I am about not updating this story in over a month. I had already written this chapter a week ago when I so stupidly - and probably half-demented - erased it from my computer during one of my all-nighters. So there I went two days later, completely pissed at myself, writing it all over again.. So I'm sorry if it didn't come out too interesting, I was in a hurry. But I promise next chapter will be better. **


	8. Of Withering Faith

**Chapter Eight : Of Withering Faith**

'…_.I have something I need to tell you, all of you.'_

Blink.

'_You're not pregnant, are you?'_

Blink.

'_Because last time I checked, you can't get rid of menopause, and we're getting too old for that, Kitty.'_

Blink.

'_No, I'm not pregnant.' The sound of a high-pitched voice echoed in memory. 'And we're not old.'_

'_Yeah, we are.' He had retorted back, looking at the two adoptive-children she had apparently taken in without his consent. 'Which so are you two idiots.'_

Blink.

'_I'm a fulltime DJ for a very famous radio station.' One of the two figures spoke, looking annoyed. 'I'm still Hot Donna.'_

'_You'll end up being Saggy Donna if you don't get yourself a real career.' There was a mocking laugh, and he turned his eyes to the other one sitting on his couch. 'And you, when are you ever going to leave my basement?'_

Blink.

'_Hey, man, I pay rent.' The kid had retorted back to the older man. 'Besides, I own a chain of record stores, I'm set for life. I'll move out tomorrow if you want.'_

'_Oh, mister-big-shot, huh?' He scoffed. _

Blink.

'_Listen here, Steven, I can give a rat's-ass if your daddy - -'_

'_- -I have cancer.'_

Blink. Tear. Blink.

_There was a silence, all eyes looking up at the woman as she stood with her hands shaking as she tried to contain her tears; her elderly expression looking tortured. '….I went to the doctors today, and well, there's a reason why all the symptoms of the tumor came back. It's…it's cancer.'_

Blink. Tear. Blink.

As the memory was being washed away by numb tears, Reginald Forman sat perfectly immobile on the king-sized bed in his room, arms crossed over his chest as he continued to blink. He had been tucked into those deep-green sheets for hours - or days - he no longer knew. All he ever did was just sit there now, looking at the pallid walls of the room that held so many memories.

Memories that he seemed to be living in, because nothing else really existed now.

He couldn't remember when was the last time he slept - that sleep that you actually enjoy because your tired, but now it just seemed like a chore. He just didn't know; when he closed his eyes and when he opened them, they were just always focused on those flashbacks.

Dreams or memories, he doesn't know.

Sometimes when his brain had gone into overload, or he had the fortune to drift away from all of that, he just sat on his bed counting the days, the minutes, the hours, the seconds that he was alone in the bedroom. He could only count the number of nights he looked to the left and found no one there; where the left side of the bed still remained perfectly fixed. Showing no signs that anyone had slept on that side of the mattress at all.

And so far in his count, there was eighty-seven days, two-thousand and eighty-eight hours, and over one-thousand-hundred minutes. (And a whole lot more seconds that no one has the patience to count.)

Red Forman was always a strong man - _always_. Through every obstacle that life brought to him, through every bump along the road, through every mishap that could be eating him away, he conquered every battle like the solider he was. Always so victorious, and without a doubt. He had always been told that he could make it through anything and everything; and that he believed.

He was sent to war so young, fighting for his country and his people even when he was just a boy, but with a fight in his blood. He saw hundreds of his fellow soldiers die around him, people that he had considered friends in those raging moments of battle, even as he tried his hardest to stay alive. And because of that ideal that he was made of steel, Red managed go home in one piece; a veteran to the United States and a survivor.

Years ago, he suffered a heart attack, something so severe that would have killed anyone, but Red Forman came out alive. Just like it was expected from all the people that knew him entirely. He wasn't a weak man after it either, he was ready to discipline his son and continue running his family like he always had. A weak heart couldn't stop him, not even when the communist could.

And because all of that - because of everything that made him a strong, feared man, Red couldn't figure out why he felt so weak as he sat on that bed. Why he felt like he was paper-thin, like he would break if he were to stand up from his imprisonment. Why for the last couple of months, years even, everything started to become so dull. He just couldn't comprehend why he felt like shattering every second of the day now.

….Maybe it was because none of the battles he had survive had prepared him for this.

Because there was no strategy out there that could prepare anyone to handle all they knew, all they held most dear, from slipping away from them. Because what was he supposed to do when his world seemed to be crashing all around him?

Life hadn't prepared Red Forman to learn how lose his wife.

But being that man, the one who was as emotionless as a wall of steel, he didn't know how to feel about any of this. He didn't know what to say or what to do; nor what to think or believe.

Not even when his wife got sick and she told him never to lose faith, that she would come out victorious from that horrible disease that was threatening to rip her away from everything they had built together. ( Because, after all, she said had left said that she was Red Forman's wife. She would survive.)

But what now - now that the uselessness of being married to him dragged her to a state of unconsciousness?

How exactly - according to her, according to the Pastor, and every other want-to-be Holy-man - was he supposed to keep faith when the woman he has shared his life is in a coma, in her possible death bed? He wants to know, where is that divine glory? Where is God?

He felt his throat tighten.

"Where is God now - -" He whispered to himself, still looking at nothing as he felt his emotions burn. "When you are slipping away from me, Kitty?" His bright eyes began to water. _What am I supposed to believe in now, Kitty, when you were all my faith? _

Knock. Knock. Knock.

Interrupting his thoughts, Red Forman wiped away the traces of his tears as he heard someone knock on his door. "Go away." He said in the same tone he had been using for months now; in that eff-everyone tone. "Go away!" He repeated angrier, huffing to himself. (How all these stupid kids did not get that he did not want or crave their company, he'll never know. They were just asking for an ass-kicking.)

Ignoring his shout, the door creaked open slowly.

Already reaching for the sheets to throw off of his body to beat some sense into one of them, Red grunted at the guess of who it was. "Eric, get the hell out of my- -"

"Mister Forman?" But a bell-like voice was heard instead of a squeaking-voice that his usually-frightened son would have given. "Can I come in?" A petite brunette entered the room, her steps cautious as she opened the door more.

Instantly, his anger resided a little bit. "Well, isn't this a surprise." He cleared his throat. Pushing away the emotions. "It's the loud-mouth, home at last."

Jacqueline Burkhart smiled brightly. "Well, hello, Mister Forman. I'm glad to see you still remember me." It sort of slipped out, thinking back to when her old friends hadn't a clue of who she was when she crossed the sliding-door of the Formans kitchen..

"It's been a few years, girl, not decades." The old man grunted.

"Well, you never really know with the…." She paused, flushing as he glared.

"Are you calling me old?"

Jackie shook her brown waves. "Of course not."

"Then?" He snapped at her. "Do you think I would not remember the annoyingly, non-stop chatter you did in this house for years? It drove me up the wall, and not even locked-doors could keep you out. It's like asking me if Kelso or Pele ever came by and scarfed down my hard-earned food."

She stifled a laugh, but grinned at the old man otherwise. "Fez, Mister, Forman. His name is Fez."

"It's all the same." He waved off her comment, straightening himself up on his bed. "Well, Jackie, I would ask why you are here, but I can already guess. Those damn idiots never leave anything at peace, do they?"

Jackie shrugged. "Donna called me, it was important."

The old man nodded once, adding a snort. "We knew she'd find you one day. She had been looking forever, you played her wrong."

The brunette lowered her head, her eyebrows furrowing a little as he heard an accusing tone to his voice. (Did _her _wrong? Yeah, like that was the likely story around here.) "I…I didn't want to be found." She mumbled, almost like if she was justifying herself.

She didn't know why, but with Mister Forman it was always hard for her to stay silent. She felt like she could be open with him; she trusted him. Like a daughter is supposed to trust her father with anything that she holds deeply in her heart.

Red nodded again. "It wasn't hard to tell that that's what you were doing, loud-one." Usually, he wasn't for the conversation with any of these adolescents, but Jackie was something different to him. He could sense it by the look on her face that she wore ever since she was a little girl, like she'd break if no one listened. "- -You left without a word after your argument with Steven. You came back for a while, but things weren't the same, and I could tell. This house was starting to get a lot quieter then, and the only people I saw you talk to were Donna and….Kitty. But then one day, before all of this began, the basement was dead silent."

Jackie focused on the brown color of the carpet. "…I needed to get away." She paused for a bit, taking a breath. "I…I had no other option."

"Running is never the solution to any problem." He replied firmly.

Looking up from the floor of the room, the brunette walked towards the bed, taking a seat at the edge of the bed where the old man had his feet. "It is when you have nothing left to live for because, well, what do you stay for then?"

"Don't give me none of that BS." Mister Forman frowned at her, looking at her in a very annoyed fashion. There was no way in hell, he thought, that she knew what hitting rock bottom was. She was in her twenties, life was just beginning for her.

Jackie let out a little puff of a giggle. "Yeah, I thought you would say that." Another puff. "Most…Actually, I don't think anyone would understand here."

He raised his eyebrow at her. "Then, answer this: did running away solve your problems?"

She sat silently, her lips pressed into a line without a retort coming to mind.

"Like I said, running never accomplishes anything. Your problems will still be there when you are gasping for air." Red said in a repenting manner. "I bet you never thought you would come back here, huh? And your plan of not being found never worked out for as long as you wished, right?" Again, Jacqueline said nothing. All she did was shake her had at the old man. "What I'm saying, Jackie, is that life never goes as planned. I would know…But you can't give up."

"I haven't." She snapped. (She had never given up, obviously. And if she had, she'd be dead, and she knew that perfectly well.) "I'm still walking, Mister Forman. It's just….the journey gets tiring."

"…It does." He whispered more to himself than to her; his head turning to the side where a picture-frame stood on the nightstand on the left. An old black and white photograph laid inside of it, reminding him of what was. "And you begin to lose faith when you no longer have will." He turned away from it, from the memory of his wedding day.

"I lost faith long ago." Jackie confessed. "…Though it seems I'm losing my will nowadays."

"You never plan to straighten anything out with any of the dumbasses downstairs." Red said, changing subjects fast before he lost his mind.

She took a deep breath - no answered required from her. It had been a statement, not a question because Mister Forman knew.

"They were your family." He added in her silence, looking at her with a parental gaze.

But she shrugged to that, ignoring it. "Can I ask you something, Mister Forman?"

_Of course you're not here to make amends with any of them_, he thought to himself, frowning at her instantly. "No, you can't borrow any money."

Laughing, she shook her head and continued. "Why do you stay in bed?" Straightforwardly, she wasn't afraid to be direct like Eric or the rest. "You, out of all people, why do you stay in bed every day? Why do you refuse your meals? Why don't you get up and get dressed? Why don't you go downstairs and join your son for dinner? Do you think you'll accomplish anything this way?"

Feeling taken aback, Red stood silent for a few seconds until he could find his voice again. (He was just not use to this emotional-crap.) "I thought it was one question."

Jackie stared, un-amused. "It's all related to the first question, Mister Forman."

His expression remained blank, the same way he reckons he looks like when he stares at the walls with nothing crossing his features when he drowns his mind in memory. However, this time, his eyes stayed aggressively expressing. And then he snapped at her, "The journey gets tiring."

A small smile threatened to tug at the corner of her mouth. "She isn't gone yet." She dared herself to say.

Another moment of nothing but quiet.

"…This house isn't the same without her." He said bluntly, allowing himself to open up for a fraction of a minute. " There's nothing I want to see, because she won't be there…And now, I'm not allowed inside her hospital-room, which frankly, it was for the best in the end. I can't handle seeing her like that." His eyes burned. "She can leave any moment."

She shook her head again, looking stern this time. "She isn't going anywhere. She still has a lot to see from everyone that huddled up in her basement for years; she still has to see them develop families of their own! It's not her time."

But instead of receiving an animated expression on the older man's face, Jackie watched him glare at her. "There was nothing left for her to see, all of you left."

"You have to get up, Mister Forman. There's always a reason to keep on living, and you have more than a powerful reason to do so." She replied, not paying attention to his glare.

The man said nothing.

Jacqueline grabbed his ankle, squeezing it as his eyes began to drift away to that photograph on the nightstand. "You're strong, Mister Forman, and you always have been. All of us looked up at you like Superman- -" She let out a chuckle. "You were the greatest man around when I lived here, and I bet you still are. You were invincible in everyone's eyes, and you showed all of us the importance of not giving up."

"You're all old enough now." He shook his leg, getting the girl to remove her hand.

"That's not true." She replied to him. "Eric needs you, he needs…he needs his father." A pause from her part as her throat burned with some thoughts of her own. "He can't go through all of this alone. His mother is in a coma and his father makes life seem as if his mother is already gone - Eric needs your support."

"He has Steven and Donna."

_Hardheaded as ever_, she huffed to herself, frowning. "Donna is as lost as Eric is; she can't help him because he refuses her help and sympathy. It makes Donna feel unappreciated and even more stressed about this situation."

"How do you know that?" He asked, returning the scowl.

"Because." She sighed. "It's not hard to tell, Mister Forman."

Mister Forman removed his frown, looking thoughtful.

"Like I said, there's always a reason to keep going. You might lose faith and will, but there's always something that keeps you up." Smiling at him, she rose up from the edge of the bed. "Eric needs you." She repeated as she headed for the door.

"Life's been hell for you, hasn't it?" He could see in her mismatched eyes something hidden. There was a sort of pain, easily seen if you looked past her facade. It was the same hurt expression she carried around for years but no one really seemed to see through her hurtful comments and dirty-looks.

She shrugged.

"You know the thing about runners, Jackie, is that there is always one dumbass that trips along the way." He gave her a smirk. "And that dumbass is _you_."

_I fell long ago_, she laughed. "Get dressed, Mister Forman, I'll make you some breakfast."

Distracting him completely, as a worried look crossed his face, Red Forman raised an eyebrow. "You cook?"

"The only means of survival when you're on your own." She said, reaching for the doorknob.

Mister Forman tossed his legs over the green sheets. "You're stronger than I imagined."

Opening the door to the Formans bedroom, Jackie spun slightly to face the old man before she stepped out. "My son couldn't feed himself off of milk all his life, nor my husband could spend his life eating take-out."

His smirk disappeared, _those dumbasses were right. There wasn't a clue in what this one got herself into. _"You have a son?"

Giving him once last smile, Jackie told him, "Like I said, Mister Forman, you always have a reason to never to give up, even when everything around you is demanding you to do so."


	9. Try A Little Tenderness

**Chapter Nine: Try A Little Tenderness**

Wincing as he yawned, Steven Hyde gritted his teeth a little as he walked down the stairs; his back aching the more he stretched. The bed in Laurie Forman's room had to be the most uncomfortable bed in the Forman household, and he hated that he had to endure the pain of it since someone, when he was off making a living, - by which he means smoking it up at the record store - decided to throw his cot in the basement away, not bothering to tell him his room was now surrounded by pink walls.

At the same time, however, he supposes he should have seen it coming. He was paying rent now, much to Red's pleasure and Mrs. Forman's displeasure, so it was expected that he was going to be getting the whore's room. (Especially since Laurie had been M.I.A for almost year, not bothering to let her parents know about her whereabouts.) It was to Hyde's great satisfaction the day he saw Mrs. Forman emptying out Laurie's room, throwing out various pairs of boxers, old condom wrappers, and a bottle or two of liquor. (Yeah, that was a day Eric should have never missed; it was like Red was getting a slap of reality of his daughter's sluttiness across the face.)

But as he cracked his neck, ignoring the aching of his back, Hyde let himself know that it was just not the tainted bed Laurie left behind, it was the nightmares that were making his nights sleepless too. Those constant haunted dreams that arrived every time he closed his eyes, memories replaying in his head when he didn't want them anywhere near him anymore.

They varied from time to time, but one was especially constant:

"_- -I was really freaked out and Jackie and me were just talking, that's all." Kelso's face was the most serious Hyde had ever seen; his eyes expressing a sincerity they never would ._

_Something in Hyde's chest dropped, he could feel it shatter there. An emotion crawling up to his brain and gripping it - _guilt_. "So, I just …I just cheated on Jackie for nothing?"_

_Kelso's expression was still grave. Hyde could see the anger behind his eyes as he tried dealing with his own fury; he knew that Kelso was cursing him mentally. Hyde had spent months after Jackie and him got together making sure Kelso knew he was never good enough for her. Never letting him forget that Jackie would never go back to him, _he _was the entire reason why she was so hurt in the first place. "That's what I've been telling you , man."_

_Now he was no better than him, both cheaters._

_And trying to settle his heart, Hyde saw something in Kelso's eyes that he wished he hadn't at the moment - his eyes moved almost sympathetically as he heard the door of The Hub open. _

_"- -Oh, Steven!" He heard her voice, Kelso walking away from him as she approached, her heels _clinking_ on the tiled floor. She rushed towards him. "Look, okay, whatever you think happened with Michael and I did _not _happen." He was starting to feel numb, her beautiful eyes so filled with guilt that was not hers stared deeply into his. "Okay? So everything's fine."_

_But everything was not. "Actually, we need to talk…."_

Snorting at the memory that came next, at the emotion that he had never felt before gripped his brain cells, Hyde made his way to the kitchen trying to shake off the scenes in his head. Trying to shake of a remorse that was never his, that always belonged to her. After all, _she _was the one who messed everything up in the end. It was her that deserved that emotion, not him. (He should have just let it go when she broke up with him in his car, but damn him and his good heart. ) He was just tired of seeing Jackie in his dreams.

And just as he pushed the swinging-door forward, he saw something that not even the darkest side of his head could create. Eric and Jackie, hugging - an abomination.

He felt it again, that emotion, but this time with a little something more. It was filled with fury, instant fury as he could see her clutching on to his brother's skinny frame like her life depended on it. Like she was someone different.

But Hyde had always been able to see past the charade, and he always knew Jackie, in particular, was full of it.

And without really thinking about it in the moment, Hyde punched the swinging-door; making it collide with the kitchen wall with a loud _bang_. "- -What's going on here?"

Jumping away from the brunette's embrace like it was a taboo, Eric looked a little startled as he stared at his best friend with a nervous gaze. "Well, you're up early, Hyde." He said awkwardly, clearing his throat and fidgeting in his stance.

"Yeah, couldn't sleep." The curly-haired man replied, his blue-eyes traveling to meet the one's of the brunette without his consent. "Nightmare, you know." It slipped. (Those damn big bright eyes of hers got the best of him.)

Jackie closed her mouth, her expression shutting down, but Hyde could see her eyes glitter with something. A question, confusion perhaps. But Hyde was there to clear it up for her, let her have no doubts about his comments.

He hated her, despised her, and he was going to make sure she didn't forget it.

"Hyde, come on, man, stop." And catching his determination, Eric frowned at him in return. (Siding with her, that was a first.)

But that really wasn't going to stop him, was it? "She shouldn't be here, Forman, I've already told you that." He continued letting out his venom. "She needs to go back where she came from, she's not supposed to be here."

Eric shook his head, his frown deepening even more. "Stop, Hyde. What's your problem, man?"

"- -No, Eric. He's right." Hyde had to fight with himself not to raise an eyebrow. (What the hell was going on here? She never agreed with anything before.) "Well, what, Eric? It's true, Hyde is right. I shouldn't be here." She added at the scrawny-man as he looked perplexed.

"Just ignore Hyde, Jackie." Forman shook his head at her, trying to sooth her like it was normal. "Of course you're supposed to be here, _we _want you here."

Hyde glared, and what was he? Not a member of the club anymore?

"Oh… Thanks, Eric, but that's not what I meant." She reached over, patting him awkwardly on the arm and then turned to Hyde; eyes completely masked this time. "What I meant was that Hyde's right about me being here…standing around and inflecting my presence upon him when I should be staring at someone worth while."

Silence fell immediately on them like a bucket of hot oatmeal; surprising them and stunning them by the comment Jackie had just made.

Hyde watched her carefully, his anger increasing from every breath of oxygen he was taking. He had four years to get used to the idea that she was never coming back, time that let him go on with his life like Jackie Burkhart did not exist; like she wasn't someone that changed something in him. Everyone had learned to let her die, let her fade away like the last time she was around - and that's the way he liked it.

He wanted to forget that he was ever in love with her.

He swallowed that memory as her eyes flickered up to his; igniting more of that fury in his blood. Walking towards him with every blink. "Maybe if you would just pretend like I don't exist and tried to steer clear from me, your bitching would stop and this would go a whole lot smoother."

Eric let out a puff of laughter, and Jackie was out of sight.

"Shut up, Forman." The curly-haired man snapped, looking at the swinging-door sway behind him as he inhaled rabidly.

"Look, Hyde, I know you have all this bitterness against Jackie and everything, but for the sake of the gang, can't you just put it aside? Just for a few days, man. It really means a lot to the rest, especially Donna." Forman crossed his arms over his chest, looking solemn as Hyde tried to regain the Zen that the brunette made him lose. "And…well, you know, my mom adored Jackie. Can you at least put your Anti-Jackie movement on a pause for _her_?"

Flashing his eyes instantly at Eric, Hyde felt something else seep into his system as he went there, bringing Mrs. Forman up for the sake of Jackie. (Something that he was sure had to be a sin to mix.) "Get bent, Forman." He spat, turning on his heels to follow his ex-girlfriend.

She needed to leave and now, and he didn't care how, but Hyde was going to make sure it happened before she reached the bedrooms upstairs.

"Hey, Hyde - _no_!" But right before he could make past Red Forman's armchair, Eric managed to grab on to his brother's arm. Restraining him with some sort of strength his must have developed in Africa. "Are you crazy, she's gone up to see Red!"

"_And_?" Hyde shoved Eric's hold. "What the hell does she think she's doing here, man?" He continued with the same rant, huffing in fury. "We were better off without her!"

Opening his mouth for a millisecond, a thought crossing his head, Eric closed it instantly. How could Hyde even say that they were 'better off' without her? With Jackie gone they were all incomplete, stuck in the same hole they've been in since their mother became comatose. "- -Just relax, alright." He said after a moment. "Just leave her alone, man. Come on."

"Leave her alone?" Hyde snorted. "Whatever, Forman. When the hell did you even start caring about Jackie, anyway? You would have gotten a kick out of all of this back then."

Then it became Eric's turn to glare. "Are you serious, Hyde?" He hissed in return, his own anger appearing. "This isn't even about us, man! This is about my mom - about _Red_!"

Hyde breathed in, glowering but remaining silent as he focused on showing Forman his anger. "When did you start hugging Jackie, man?" He asked heatedly, choosing to ignore the comment about the Formans.

Eric chuckled once, shaking his head as he took a step back. _So, that's what it was about_, he thought to himself. "Look, Hyde, Jackie came here to visit my mom. And we all know she's Red's favorite." He responded, ignoring his question just the same way Hyde seemed to dodge his statements. " She annoyed the crap out of him, but he cared about her more than what he did me, man. And if anyone can try and get him outta his room for a few minutes, well then, that's freaking awesome for me!"

Hyde tightened his lips into a line, still inhaling with anger.

"…If she can manage that, Hyde, then I don't care if she stays an entire year following us like a shadow." Eric spoke again, his tone as honest as it was going to get. "My priority is my parents - it's Red right now, and I don't care if that process makes you uncomfortable."

Blowing out air, Hyde kept his frown but his eyes erased all previous anger. "Whatever."

Eric laughed again, despite him being mad at his adoptive-brother, he grabbed his arm and steered him towards the kitchen. "If it makes you feel better, Hyde, she'll only be here for a few days. After that, you can continue on like always."

Allowing Forman to lead the way without a retort, Hyde furrowed his brows as a thought crossed his head. "How long exactly?"

"She didn't say." Eric replied, both best friends heading down to the basement. "But from yesterday's brief conversation, it can't be more than two days. Her husband's got work, so does she, and their kid has school."

"…They'll go back to their normal lives." It slipped from the curly-haired man before he could stop it; the comment meant to be his own thought.

Opening the door of the basement, Eric did not pretend like he did not hear it. "…Yeah." He muttered back. "They'll go back to their normal lives."

Entering the basement, the two men found that their footsteps were the only noise coming from it - which had to be rare. The basement was never quite, especially if there was a Kelso or two in it. But instead of finding daughter and father laughing like crazy people or destroying something, all they found was a little boy seated in the muddle of the old couch; staring silently at the television.

Eric raised his eyebrow, the sound was off and the boy was watching the news. "Hey, Aidan." He cleared his throat uncomfortably, giving the boy an odd look. "Where's everyone else?"

The boy turned to the men, his eyes scanning them for a few seconds before speaking. "Aunt Donna and Betsy are chasing her dad outside." He explained with a clear voice. "Uncle Kelso pulled out some of Aunt Donna's stuff from his pocket and she got mad."

_Ugh, he took her underwear again, I'm sure of it,_ Forman groaned. "That son of a- -"

"Forman." Hyde called out to his brother before he could drop the bomb, nodding towards the boy at the couch as he walked over to his chair. "Watch it, man."

"Aw, yeah, sorry, shit." Eric grimaced, cursing himself inside. "I mean, _shoot_." He sighed, shaking his head. "Just…don't tell your mom about this, alright, Aidan?" (Because he was sure Jackie would butcher him if she taught her precious son any curse words.)

"You're too fidgety." Aidan responded, looking at Eric like he was the strangest person he had ever seen. "Are you always like that? Do you need to go potty?" He asked with pure curiosity, taking out a popsicle from his pocket.

Against his will, Hyde let the natural instinct to laugh at his brother to come out; especially as the latter frowned at the boy. "Burned by a three year-old, man. Classic."

Flipping Hyde the finger as the boy blinked down for a quick second, Eric still frowned when Jackie's son looked back up. "Didn't your mom say you weren't allowed to have one?"

"I'm not eating it, am I?" The little boy said, the tone of his voice sounding like the way his mother used to speak. And as Eric still frowned, Aidan turned to Hyde, blue-eyes meeting blue in a impulsive second. "And I'm not three, I'm almost five. And who are you?"

Noticing that Hyde went into a sudden blank-state, Eric sat himself down next to the kid. "That's Hyde, he's my brother."

But not exactly paying attention to the oh-so-sweet comment Forman made, Steven Hyde found that a knot of something was growing in his throat. "- -You're five?" He asked in a weird mumble, staring at the boy intently.

"Almost five." Aidan repeated, turning away from him and looking back at the television screen.

Turning to Eric, the curly-haired man gave him a puzzled look; both of them wondering the same thing: How could the boy be five? Jackie was not gone that long.

"She must have gotten busy fast if the kid's that old- -"Reaching for the remote, Eric increased the volume on the old T.V. as he spoke to his brother in a hushed tone. "Well, think about it." He added as Hyde looked momentarily confused. "She's been gone for four years, and unless the lessons my mom taught me about a woman's uterus were wrong, there's no way the kid could be that old. She must have been seeing Andrew before she decided to bail from here."

Hyde nodded once, the facts lining up in his head. "Yeah, makes sense." Well, it did make sense, she had gotten over him faster than what Hyde was cocky enough to believe.

"Humph." Eric raised an eyebrow, nodding to himself. "So she left Point Place for that guy, then? This is what that was about?"

At the rhetorical question that lingered in the air, Aidan turned to the men with an annoyed expression on his pale face. "Can you stop talking about my mom, I don't like it." Which was true, he hated it when others talked about her. Which happened almost all the time; the way they whispered behind her back. Like they knew something.

"Sorry." Eric apologized for him and Hyde, clearing his throat again. "So, Aidan…How's everything? You're liking Point Place?"

The boy shrugged. "Haven't seen much."

"Oh. Right."

The awkwardness grew between the three, all of them turning to the television and watching the anchorman talk about a new speculation over John Lennon's death.

"Okay - Aidan, wanna come with me outside? I need to make sure Donna did not kill both Kelsos."

"I have to ask my mommy." Aidan replied, his eyes still glued on the television. "She doesn't like it when I leave without telling her."

"It's cool, I'm your Uncle Forman, it'll be alright." Eric told the boy confidently, pulling him up from the couch and steering him towards the staircase.

"Okay, okay." Aidan said, secretly a little excited to see what became of his Uncle Kelso. "- -Hey, Uncle Hyde, can you tell my mommy I left please?"

Almost as if someone had forced him to turn, Hyde stared skeptically at the boy as he marched away with Eric, not even bothering to wait for an answer. Or to see the disorder that crawled through his skin at what he had called him.

"- -Aidan, baby." But just as that havoc was twirling his organs inside, Hyde cleared his throat as the other door to the basement opened; a brunette coming in. "…Oh. It's you."

Steven nodded once, clearing his throat again. "Um, yeah." He repeated the nod and clearing of throat; trying not to look uncomfortable or like she discombobulated him from her abrupt presence. "He went with Forman to Donna's." He told her, trying to focus on a clip of John Lennon's funeral that had taken place a few years back. (They just needed to let the man rest, he was a freaking legend! Where's the respect?)

"Oh." She said in a whisper, tension feeling the air as she could feel her heart bang inside her chest. The sound of it reaching up to her ears, making her wonder if he could hear it too if it was beating that loud. She didn't want him to think that it was because of him, because it wasn't. It was the general idea of the past - of that basement, of most of all her memories taking place there.

"…Ah, do you want me to call him or something?" Hyde asked uneasily, not being able to handle the tension in the air.

Jackie furrowed her eyebrows, a little dubious. "Um, no, it's fine." She cleared her throat too. "I just…um, yeah."

"It's not a problem." Hyde insisted, wanting the excuse to leave before the atmosphere collapsed from the pressure floating around that they were both creating.

But not wanting to owe him anything, the petite woman shook her head. "No, it's alright. I'm sure Eric and Donna won't be long. But, ah, Hyde I was…I was wondering…"She trailed off, not being able to bring herself to continue on without giving out the wrong impression.

"…Yeah?" He glanced up at her, cursing himself for forgetting his infamous glasses in his room; the perfect way to mask anything that could cross his eyes.

_Be the bigger person, Jacqueline, be the bigger person_, she chanted to herself; breathing in. "Do you want breakfast?"

Raising his eyebrow, trying not to laugh at the absurd question that just came out unexpectedly from her mouth, Hyde cleared his throat again. (It was the safe way to get rid of any emotion or uneasiness in the air for him.) "You're going to go buy some?"

She rolled her eyes at him, seeing the doubt in his eyes. "No, I'm almost done making it."

And at that image of the brunette cooking, Hyde laughed. "Yeah, no thanks, Jackie."

Jackie frowned. "I _know _how too cook, Hyde!" She retorted, sounding almost like a little fraction of her hardheaded old self.

"See, I'm not so sure about that." He smirked at her, not noticing it. "You tried baking once, it did not work out for you." (A batch of cookies that she had spent an hour making that went directly to the trash after it almost chipped his tooth, if he remembers correctly.)

"_Fine_." She grunted. "You can wait two hours until the closest thing opens around here and eat until then, I'm not going to beg."

But just as she was turning on her heels, Hyde bolted from his chair. "Alright, fine." He called out, making her stop towards her path to the door. "I'll eat whatever the hell you're making, but I swear, Jackie, if I get food-poisoning I'll accuse you of attempted murder."

She smiled softly at him, noticing the courage burning in his blue-eyes like if he had just volunteered himself to fight off a dragon for Point Place. "I won't disappoint, promise." She said to him with a tone that could be considered as warm.

He smiled too.

"Besides, I bet you and Mister Forman will ask for seconds after you taste my pancakes." She added as he walked over to her, both of them turning towards the door like if they were back in the past; a hand on her back from him, leading her up the stairs. Everything forgotten for that second.

"Yeah, but he was in the war. He'd eat anything if he is hungry." Hyde joked, forgetting to pull on his Zen and that he would regret this later.

Because he did not realize that ignoring her would have been the best way to go, now he was about to be tangled into a web Jackie had been making for years.


	10. Rolling In The Deep

**Chapter Ten: Rolling In The Deep**

_She was staring out the window of a little coffee shop, watching the people outside hurry along the streets as rain came drizzling down unexpectedly. Business men and women taking cover under newspapers like the cheesiest films, others fighting for cabs. The world suddenly so hectic because of a few drops of water falling from the sky. Almost like none of them had ever experienced rain before, like it was the strangest thing._

_But she was used to it, it was so normal for her. Because for the past month all she found was grey clouds following behind her, she saw rain every day._

'_Jacqueline, you okay?'_

_Blinking away from her sight of a pregnant woman taking refuge from the rain underneath a bus-stop, Jacqueline Burkhart refocused her attention at the person sitting next to her. 'Em, yeah, sorry.' She cleared her throat, reeling in her cup of coffee closer to her as she could feel the eyes from the person boring into her face. 'You were saying?'_

_Andrew Taylor frowned at the brunette, but repeated once again what he had already said. 'Mister Goldstein, the attorney of the firm, mentioned that he had a few connections with local television stations. And I, being the man that I am, I let it slip that Miss Burkhart happened to have worked on T.V. before and that she was looking to restart that career.'_

'_You remembered that?' Jackie asked a bit surprised, the both of them quiet for a few seconds as the waitress brought them their breakfast-muffins. 'I only mentioned it once.'_

_The man smiled. 'I remember everything you have ever said in my presence, Jacqueline.' But before the brunette could lose herself in a bubble of silence, he continued. 'Anyway, he wants to meet with you at the end of your shift today. I really think he'll get you restarted in your career path, Jacqueline. You'll get to work in television again.'_

'…Oh_.' Jackie furrowed her brows, not really expressing the emotion the man was expecting to see. 'That's really nice of you, Andrew, but I can't.'_

_Andrew frowned again . 'What do you mean you can't? This was your dream, you've said so countless of times before.'_

_The brunette woman picked on her muffin, counting a few seconds so she could repress anything that would jump out and verbally attack the man. '…Not anymore.' She whispered truthfully, because she owed it to him. Because he didn't know that for a month now, since she arrived in Chicago, all of her dreams had died and faded. 'It's who I was.' She added in a low voice._

_And she couldn't go back to that._

'_So what now, Jacqueline? You want to clean offices' for the rest of your life?' Andrew retorted, growing angry. (Couldn't she see that he was trying to help her? To give her a proper job?) 'Look, I understand you don't want to talk about your past, and I respect that, but that shouldn't mean you should give up on success.'_

'_For who, though?' Jackie asked in a broken murmur, her bright eyes filling with tears. 'I have nothing. I have no one.'_

_Andrew shook his head. 'You have _me_, Jacqueline.'_

_But somehow, inside her destroyed heart, Jackie found no comfort in that. '…You don't know me.'_

'_I know that you're broken, and that already sums you up.' The man spoke sincerely, almost no sympathy in his voice. 'You don't have to go back, Jacqueline.' He reached for her hand, taking it away from the hold of her coffee mug and staring at her intently. 'Wherever it is that you came from, you don't have to go back. You can stay here forever, move on faraway, because here is where you are safe. If you go back, you'll continue being broken. I can see that.'_

_Staring into the man's emerald eyes, at all the honesty, at all the need, Jackie felt almost hypnotized by them. The more she looked into them, the more she wanted to believe. She wanted to believe that she was finally safe, finally free. And somehow she felt that around him; she felt like someone did care for her, that someone was willing to listen and support her._

_She was safe._

'…_They didn't love you, Jacqueline.' Andrew whispered to her, his voice so bewitching as she shed silent tears. 'If they did, you wouldn't be here.'_

_Jackie bit her lip, a nod coming from her after his comment. '..They didn't.' She agreed, believing that too. _

_Smiling a little as the brunette wiped away her tears, Andrew squeezed her hand tightly. 'I love you, Jacqueline, so stay here. I can help you, I care.'_

_And knowing subconsciously that she should have known better, because love can not come so easily and purely from someone she only knew for a month, Jackie squeezed his hand in return._

_She just wanted to be wanted, wanted to be cared for. She just wanted to be loved, wanted to survive._

"- -This actually smells good." Interrupting the silent memory playing inside the cook's head without actually knowing, Red Forman sat himself in his regular seat on the kitchen-table; smiling at the little brunette turning off the stove. "Better than dog-food, I am impressed."

Entering through the swinging-door of the kitchen, Hyde smirked as he heard Red's comment from the living room. "Who knows, man, maybe it _is _dog-food." He teased, grabbing a chair by Mister Forman's right.

"Shut it." Mister Forman warned, the smell of bacon filling his nostrils for the first time in a very long time. "Be thankful that the loud-one offered to at least try and cook something. We have been surviving off potato-chips and Poptarts for God-knows-how-long."

From his seat, Hyde got a small glimpse of a faint smile on Jackie's lips, making her eyes sparkle in a way he hadn't seen for a while. And even though as he had a smirk on his face, Hyde was grateful he took the chance to run up to his new bedroom to change out of his sweats and grab his glasses; because if he hadn't, he was sure someone would see content playing hide-and-seek in his eyes.

He didn't know exactly _why _he was feeling it, but what he did know was that it could not be because of Jackie Burkhart. He still hated her, he wanted to make that perfectly clear. Even if he was accepting her food, that meant nothing. (A man had to eat, right?) It was just to go with the flow, to be civilized until she left.

…Until their lives went on like they had for the past couple of years.

Coughing away that thought, Hyde pulled on his handy-dandy Zen; looking completely blank and plain in a second. "Donna cooked for us a couple of times, Red, remember?"

"Just because she brought the takeout does not mean she cooked for us, Steven." Mister Forman snorted.

"Stop talking." Jackie said to both of them, placing a glass of orange-juice on either sides of their plates.

"She just told you to shut up, man." Hyde looked expectantly at the older man, both of them with raised eyebrows at the brunette. "Are you gonna take that?"

"Are _you _going to take that, dumbass?" Mister Forman retorted, a leer on his face as Hyde frowned and Jackie brought him a cup of coffee.

Shaking her head, her brown curls swaying behind her back as she did, sending the smell of lavender out into the air, Jackie headed back to the stove. "Both of you stop." She sounded almost like she was scolding two little kids. "No more bickering about my cooking, alright?"

"Whatever." Hyde snorted, crossing his arms as he waited for his plate of food.

Laughing slightly at the awkwardness of the situation for his adoptive-son, Red Forman felt strange for having company around him. (Granted, he didn't necessarily like them, but it felt normal.) He felt slightly less alone - well, his mind did. Like he finally had distractions from those memories that live upstairs.

"- -It was a joke, God, Donna!" Entering through the sliding-door of the kitchen, a palm smacked onto his left eye, Kelso stomped his way in. "There was no need for your bestiality!"

And following after him, with the same angry stomp, Donna aimed a punch to Kelso's shoulder. "Well stop going through my…_delicates_, Kelso!"

"I was gonna put them back!" Michael defended for himself, now rubbing his eye and shoulder at the same time.

"You were not!"

Looking up from the newspaper Jackie had so graciously left on the table for him, Red glared at the two shouting idiots. "Both of you, shut the hell up."

And almost like they had seen a ghost from Christmas past, Kelso jumped away from the table at the sight of Red's angry eyes just as the redhead practically headed out the door again. "Holy shi - _sky_!" He managed to catch himself before he cursed as Eric came inside the kitchen with two kids on either of his sides. "It's Red!"

Mister Forman glared even more.

"Dad." Eric's voice came out a little high-pitched. "You're up - you're here - out of bed. How did - _Jackie_!" Still stumbling on his words due to his surprise, he turned towards the brunette assembling plates. "You got him out of bed."

Noticing his intense shock but radiating gratitude at the same time, Jackie smiled at him in return. "Sure did."

"Unbelievable."

"Yeah, way to go, Jackie." Donna spoke after her boyfriend, grinning encouragingly. "We leave you alone for a few minutes and you manage to do more than we have been attempting to for months."

"Hey, I got him out of bed too!" Michael called, taking his hand away from his eye and looking insulted. "Remember? No one thanked _me _for that."

Behind his aviator-glasses, Hyde rolled his eyes. "That's because you almost burned the house down, idiot. He came downstairs to kick your ass."

At the memory of the swift blow he got to give Kelso, an itch that he has been wanting to scratch for the past sixteen years, Mister Forman smirked. "Sure did."

And noticing that gleam of satisfaction for admitting he did in fact attacked his Uncle Kelso, Aidan took a step away from the elderly man; looking slightly scared.

As Kelso frowned at that memory too, everyone else grinning or leering at him, Jackie was the only one to noticed Aidan's scared face. And knowing instantly what it had to do with, she immediately decided to clear his fear. "Aidan, baby, that's Mister Forman, he's Eric's dad." Walking over to him, she pushed him a step forward. "He's a wonderful man."

"It's true." Red agreed, smiling at Jackie as her friends scoffed in the background.

"…Hi." Aidan mumbled, taking another step towards the man with his mother's help. His little palm extended out politely like his dad had taught him to. ('Respect your elders or else' was the lesson.) "I'm Aidan."

And just as he placed the newspaper on the tabletop, Mister Forman saw a gleam of light bouncing off the boy's eyes; making him stare at him with a searching eye. There was just something about that flicker crossing the boy's gaze, Red was sure of it. There was something he had seen before, something that was filled with fight, with the need to strive and live.

But looking past that, Red could see a lot of Jackie in the boy as well. He had the same wide-eyed shape, the same freckles on his temples that his mother always hid with makeup, the same wavy hair, and that glow of something out of the ordinary.

Clearing his throat as he could see how the others were staring back and forth, Mister Forman shook the little boy's hand. "Good morning, boy."

"- -Good morning, Grandpa Forman!" Not liking that all the attention was on the new boy that her father told her was her 'cousin', especially since she was standing there looking exceptionally cute with that pink dress her mom bought her, Betsy waved her hand at Mister Forman. Stepping in front of Aidan as the latter happily hid from the prying eyes of the adults in the room.

"Kid." Red gave her a single nod, but a smile on his face despite his cold greeting. (He did enjoy having the little girl's company around the house - at times - but she was still a Kelso and that automatically put him in a bad mood.)

"Alright, how about all of you sit down now." Jackie spoke, taking a deep breath as the meeting went well. (That was one less introduction that she had to do.) "Aidan, you and Betsy take the stools, okay? The adults get the table."

Obediently as always, Aidan nodded and pulled out a stool by the kitchen counter.

"So what did you buy to eat, Hyde?" Donna asked, pulling out a chair for herself as she watched her friend's son curiously.

Not really listening to the redhead's question, Hyde narrowed his eyes at the boy, looking at him the same way every one was apparently doing as his thoughts were faraway from the present.

There was something about that kid, he was sure of it. He saw it in the way Red looked at him, like he too saw something more than the boy's presence. It was like something clicked in his head, like Red saw something than no one had. But at the moment, Hyde couldn't figure out what it was. The only thing he was sure of was that there was something about Aidan Taylor.

"Hyde- -" _Snap_.

Clearing his throat as Donna snapped her fingers in his face, Hyde uncrossed his arms as he grabbed his glass of orange-juice. "I didn't buy anything, Jackie made breakfast."

Leaping away from the table, Kelso looked like he was just electrocuted. "No way!" He shook his head rapidly. "Come on, Bets, we'll go to Fatso Burger. There's no way I'm letting you eat anything Jackie cooked."

"Thinking about it, I'm not very hungry." Eric spoke, standing from the table as his girlfriend nodded in agreement with him.

Jackie frowned at her old friends. "Sit."

None of them moved, all looking wary. Almost if they thought she was about to throw a knife at them.

"Michael." The brunette called, folding her arms as she knew she'd get him to obey first. "Sit."

"…Fine."

"Whipped." Eric snorted at his friend, watching him sit himself back on his chair.

"I can't help it." Kelso admitted, knowing deep inside that he would always be a sucker for Jackie Burkhart.

Quickly getting annoyed by the entire situation, because at this rate he was never going to get his breakfast and all he would have to satisfy himself with is that coffee, Red glared at his son and at the neighbor-girl ."Eric, Donna, sit down."

Donna and Eric shared a skeptical look.

"_Now_." Red hissed instantly and he watched the two drop back down on their chairs.

Watching as Hyde and Michael laughed at the expense of their two friends, Jackie couldn't help but to feel like her memories were going to start bursting in from every corner of the house; like they were going to slither their way in through the doors and reel her back into them. She could see everything, all those moments she sat in that same table with them, either with Michael or Steven at her side, and laughed mockingly at someone. She could see herself patiently waiting for Mrs. Forman to hand her a plate of food, or she could still hear the faint rants Mister Forman would give after reading something that he did not agree with.

Shaking her head once to herself to get rid of her thoughts, Jackie swallowed a knot of emotions at the same time. For the first time since she found herself living in hell, she couldn't wait to go home.

"Hey, Jackie- -"As the silence got too heavy to listen, Donna spun her chair a little so she could get a good view of the brunette; wanting to make small talk to fill in the open spaces in the air. "How did you learn to cook, anyway?"

"I tried to remember everything Mrs. Forman taught me." Jackie answered, placing a plate full of the ultimate breakfast by Mister Forman and Donna's side. (Pancakes, eggs, hash-browns, and bacon. All that goodness they were used to when Mrs. Forman was up and cooking for them early in the mornings.) "And when that failed, my mother-in-law taught me."

"Really?" Donna raised an eyebrow, eyeing the food carefully as Jackie continued passing out plates of breakfast. "At least three years of experience then?"

"And not a complaint since." Jackie almost snapped at the redhead, walking towards Hyde's side and handing him his food. Her hand accidentally brushing by his shoulder, sending another threat of memory to go jolting up her spine.

"…Thanks." The curly-haired man whispered in return, looking uncomfortable by her quick touch.

Grinning a little as he forked his eggs as he heard Hyde's perfect manners, Eric thanked Jackie too. He wondered if by lunch Hyde and her would have a civil conversation so he could brag to Donna how he was finally able to get through them. (That ought to score him some points with his girlfriend, right? It had been a few days since…they cuddled.)

"- -Oh, baby, no. That's not your plate." Watching silently and undetectably , because he had the skills of a ninja - and he had the outfit to prove it - Kelso saw Jackie walk over to the kitchen-counter and take her son's plate before he could even begin to eat. "Here you go, Betsy, this one's yours."

And barely having had picked up her fork to attempt to cut her hash-browns, Betsy smiled brightly at Jackie as she took her plate too and switched with her son's. "Thank you, godmother." She said knowingly.

Jackie looked momentarily stunned. "No problem." She whispered to the little girl, heading back towards the sink.

Glancing back and forth between his plate and his daughter's, Michael noticed that something was missing from both - eggs.

'_Wanna see something hot- -'Stopping the tiny brunette in her tiny bikini from leaving the Formans kitchen, Kelso he lifted a cup towards her face. 'Watch me drink raw eggs.' _

'_Oh, Michael- -'_

'_- -Jackie, hold on, I'm drinking my eggs.' He really wanted her to see this._

'_No, Michael- -' She had frowned at him._

'_- -Jackie, whatever it is, I'm sure it can wait until after I drink my eggs.' _

'Fine_.' She frowned harder, looking annoyed instantly._

_But not caring at the moment that she was, plus sensing Hyde still behind him, Kelso took one brave inhale and downed the cup of eggs. Chanting to himself mentally, '_it's just oj, it's just oj'_, even though he knew perfectly well that orange-juice did not taste like dead baby-chickens. (And he knew a thing or two about eating dead animals.) _

'_Now, what's so important?' He asked, picking out a tiny piece of eggshell from his teeth._

'_You're allergic to eggs!' She hissed at him, her incredulity burning in her eyes. _

_Debating about whether or not that was true, Kelso decided it was best to believe his ex-girlfriend. (After all, she was the one who always remembered everything. His birthday, their anniversary, when he had appointments at the pediatrician …) 'Oh, man, I am!'_

Drifting away from that memory that seemed to have taken place thousands of years ago, Kelso snorted to himself with a hidden grin. Eggs - nothing important, nothing memorable, but it mattered to him at the moment; mattered that she remembered it.

Almost six years of them not being together, four years of him not seeing her, and yet she still remembered what would most likely kill him. Something that he _might _have passed down to his daughter. (She didn't know if he had or not, he knew, but she still protected his kid either way.)

Looking up from his food, Michael let his long-living love for Jackie take over his eyes for a few more seconds; just enjoying a moment or two of watching her. (It felt good; almost normal and comfortable again.)

But deciding to shake his head and concentrate on the ongoing conversation on the table about Eric's no-good-for-nothing Space Center still lying about in the basement that Red wanted to get rid of instead of all the 'I love you's' he had once said to Jackie, Kelso decided to leave that in the past.

"….Mommy, are you okay?" Seeing past the supposed productiveness his mother was doing by washing the fryers, Aidan looked at his mother intently.

Breathing in deeply, letting the strong smell of the soap crawl inside her nostrils, Jackie nodded once at her son. "Of course." She replied in a careless tone, not wanting to drag attention to herself as she saw from the corner of her eye as Hyde looked up for a quick second. "….Perfectly fine." She muttered to herself, scrubbing harder.

She was losing it, she could feel it. It was starting to increase like boiling-pressure, igniting in her collarbone, rushing down like hot water inside her veins and on the outside of her skin, all of it reaching to the tip of her fingers. She could feel her heart banging so heavily inside her chest, making it hurt.

She just couldn't anymore - well, not for much longer.

All the people around her, they all meant something to her old self; each and every one of them. And she couldn't contain it, couldn't deal with it because she wasn't Jackie Burkhart anymore. She was Jacqueline Taylor in reality, and that woman destroyed everything that existed before. Time had made sure the process had gone accordingly so.

And all of them - from Mister Forman to Betsy Kelso were important. They all had pieces of her heart, fragments of her memory that would not go away. They had all been her friends, her people, her family at a certain junction of her life. They had watched her suffer, laugh, and cry; _before_.

They were her past, and she knew perfectly well that the past was something not meant to be dug up from its grave. And she was no about to attempt to do it. Not even if every second she spent around them, in Point Place, tempted her to do so.

Her heartache was more powerful than wanting to relive what happened before, and she could not forgive them. (None of them.) Her dreams involving them had been that of a child's, impossible. And because she got slapped with reality, her senses coming back to life and showing her how things actually were, she ended up finding Andrew Taylor one stormy night.

Him, Chicago, and everything else that came after leaving Wisconsin was her life now, and she knew that with all her shattered pieces of heart. It had been fate, destiny, and all of those grand powers of the universe that brought her and Andrew together, and she could not complain; she had learned to accept it long ago.

It was not ideal, not perfect in so many ways, but none of that really mattered to her. Being with Andrew had brought her some joy and eternal happiness; it was because of him that she had her son, that Aidan was in the world. (And that was something that was not in the past, something she was not willing to take back.)

Not being able to inhale much air inside the suddenly overcrowded kitchen, Jackie turned off the faucet of the sink abruptly and headed towards the sliding-door. "I have to go." She managed to say without squeaking for air.

"Jackie- -"

"I-I have to see Mrs. Forman, I'll see you there." She added to Donna's would-be halt; heading fast out the door and leaving her scent behind like a trail.

"Well, that wasn't weird at all." Kelso said, stuffing his mouth with more food. "She left her kid."

Eric snorted. "Typical. She better come back, I'm not raising the devil's son."

Mister Forman frowned, making his son stop his chuckling instantly. "Shut it, dumbass."

Not really paying attention to his adoptive-family's discussion, Hyde paused himself to stare at the open door; wondering to himself what the hell had happened. Why had Jackie stormed out like that.

Blinking away from that spot of her departure so no one would notice his curiosity, Hyde's blue-eyes connected with younger ones. Both him and Jackie's son staring at each other, the same look of questioning in their gazes.

* * *

**AN: Hey guys! Well, I just wanted to say thank you for reading this rewrite! I'm so glad you all keep reading. (:**


	11. What No One Knows

**Chapter Eleven: What No One Knows**

Silence.

Clank. Clank. Clank.

Silence.

Clank. Clank. Clank.

Silence - _cough_.

Narrowing her green-eyes as no one turned around as she gave that awkward-cough that usually means someone is trying to say something, Donna crossed her arms over her chest as she watched everyone scrape their forks on their plates; trying to devour all the food that was left on them.

None of them had said a word since the brunette stormed out a while ago, almost like she had taken the conversation out of the room with her. The only moment noise was made was when Mister Forman had declared he was going up for a shower, but other than that, nothing. She just got the occasional glimpse of Kelso looking up at his daughter, looking a little thoughtful, and then turning back to eating his bacon.

But Donna was having none of that - not since there was still a lot to be said and figured out. "- -Hey, Aidan." She coughed louder, making sure her voice lingered in the men's eardrums. "You're going to school, right?" (Small talk, with a child, Donna sure knew how to get the entertainment flowing.)

Finding that he had lost his appetite and that the only thing inside his tummy was nervousness and awkwardness, obviously due to the fact that his mother had just left him with a group of strangers, Aidan looked up from his plate with that blankness that expressed his comfort-level. "Kindergarten." He replied simply but politely.

"I'm in Kinder too- -" Little Betsy Kelso interrupted before the redheaded woman could continue her useless conversation with the boy. "But I was supposed to be in first grade, 'cept daddy didn't register me on time."

Pulling on a smirk on his face, Hyde leaned against his chair - the others looking momentarily smug; everyone seemed to remember that day clearly. Brooke had transformed into a she-Hulk and practically ripped her baby-daddy's little Kelso from the rage. (The horror and the embarrassment. The only child of one of Point Place's smartest had fallen a year behind. The risk of the Kelsos genes to kick into full-gear was high now.)

"Bets - Bets, we don't tell that story, alright, honey?" Kelso spoke up, frowning at the matching leer Eric had pulled on his face too. "Remember, we were in Egypt studying the castles."

Narrowing her eyes at the man, a look of deep pity on her face for him, Donna stepped away from the table and ruffled Betsy's hair before heading to the sink with her empty plate. "Don't let that worry you, sweetie, you'll always be smarter than your dad."

"_Hey_!" Kelso exclaimed, bits of pancake flying out towards the others. "Do I need to remind you all of my SAT scores?"

"That was one time." Eric scoffed, still feeling resentment for that. "Besides, you should be happy that your kid got all of Brooke's traits; that's like knowing Betsy will end up going to college instead of ending up like you and all your brothers."

"There's no shame in working in a stripper-joint, Eric!" Michael retorted back. "Casey gets fat paychecks and dibs on any costumes - he's set for Halloween!"

Nodding mockingly at that, Hyde inflated his smirk even more. "Encouraging your daughter to be a stripper, Kelso, _classy_." He laughed, his adoptive-brother along with him as his girlfriend rolled her eyes. "The honor to be a Kelso, man."

Glaring at all the entertainment everyone was getting at his expense, Kelso threw his last bacon-strip at the curly-haired man. "Yeah, well…At least our kids have great hair."

"Ay, the fro is a trademark, man." Hyde snapped against his will. "My kid will be part Black, what do you got? Part dumbass."

"…We better leave while we wait for Grandpa Forman." As her father decided to throw another remark at his curly-haired best friend, and knowing perfectly well that this was going to go nowhere and waste some of her time, Betsy leaned a little to her left to whisper to Aidan's ear. "They're gonna start saying grown-up words soon."

Getting a peek over her shoulder, Aidan saw Betsy's dad get punched on the shoulder by one of his friends. "…Okay." He muttered back at the girl, looking away as his Uncle Kelso raised his middle-finger at the other adults.

"We can watch, TV." Betsy suggested, jumping out of her stool.

"- -Stop picking on me and my Bets, bother Jackie's kid!" And just as his little feet touched the tiled-floor of the Formans kitchen, Aidan felt like someone had glued his shoes onto the floor; forbidding him to move as the adults suddenly focused their attention on him. "Hey, where'd your cousin go?"

"…Basement." He muttered in response, taking a step back as he felt four sets of eyes boring holes onto his face with every blink they gave.

And just as silence crept into the kitchen again, Aidan watched them carefully as all of them shared uncomfortable stares.

These people were supposed to be his family, right? They were supposed to be somehow related to his mother, right? Then how come he didn't know them? How come they didn't know about him?

So many questions were running through Aidan's young-mind, all of it making him more and more confused.

If these people loved his mother, if they cared for her, if they were her family or friends, how come they didn't try and help her? How come they didn't save them from his father?

"Kid, you okay?" Snapping her fingers an inch away from his face, Donna furrowed her brows at Jackie's son; looking at him suspiciously.

"He's probably on some meds or really strong cough-syrup- -"Walking over towards the boy, kneeling down beside him, Eric moved his index finer back and forth from Aidan's blue-eyes. "Jackie did say he was sick, remember?"

Wanting to slap the man's finger away, but deciding against it incase someone told his dad about his rudeness, Aidan smiled forcefully at them. "I'm okay."

"Bet he's just fascinated with our culture." Michael offered as he watched his redheaded friend grab the kid and sit him on her lap. "I mean look at this place, it's his mother's family-home."

Eric and Hyde exchanged an irritated eye roll.

"…Not really." Aidan spoke again from Donna's lap, feeling uncomfortable as the woman held on to him like if he would fall; like if her hands were the safety-straps on a horse in the merry-go-round. "Mommy never told me who you are before."

Somehow the happiness Donna had been feeling all morning was swept away, feeling a soreness inside her chest like she had just been suckered-punched there.

"She never told you about us?" But luckily her boyfriend was quick on asking the questions that she would have if she wasn't hurting. "Or that she lived here? Golly, kid, is there anything you _do _know?"

Aidan shook his head at Eric. "One time I asked her about when she was a little girl…."He trailed off for a second, thinking back to that memory not long ago. "It was my homework, I asked her about her old home, but she was just was really sad."

He stopped again and all those who were facing him watched him frown to himself.

"Daddy was mad at her…but mommy's always sad." He said after another short pause, his words light and sad too as he thought of the constant memories of tears in his mother's eyes.

"…_Why_?" It was Donna who whispered, turning him an angle so she could see him closely. "Why is Jackie always sad, Aidan?"

"I don't know." He answered her truthfully, almost sounding guilty at such a young age. Guilty because he didn't know, because he should have, because she was his mother and he should know this by heart. (But maybe he did, and because he was so young, he couldn't understand it. But that was just something else added to the list of things that confused him - a list that kept getting longer the more they stayed in Point Place.) "My grandma says she's always like that, even before I came out of her tummy."

Forgetting the subject at hand for a quick second, Kelso's ears perked up high at the mention of the boy's grandmother. "Well, well, well. Pam Burkhart, huh, kid? You're a lucky little fella, seeing that fine piece of - -"

"Dude, she's like fifty now." Eric interjected right on time, looking a little disturb. (Though a bit intrigued, Pam seemed to grow more luscious with age.)

"Who's Pam Burkhart?" Aidan asked, knitting his light-colored eyebrows at the two men ranting to each other.

Adding to the slight upsetting feeling in her chest, Donna pressed a finger to her lips behind the little boy's back, signaling to the others to keep their mouths shut and not say a word. (It was not news that Donna really disliked Jackie's floozy mother, but this was not entirely her business either. If Pam Burkhart had not been in the picture to even get to meet her grandson, then there's no right to inform the kid about the woman who broke Jackie's heart long ago too.) "What's your grandma's name, Aidan?" Was instead where Donna took the conversation.

"Sara." Aidan answered on the spot, still sounding confused though the men looked at opposite walls; looking puzzled themselves. "She's my daddy's step-mom."

Even though the others weren't looking at the kid, their expressions holding their worry that they had just stuck their noses where they didn't belong - and probably no doubt thinking that Jackie was going to butcher them once she found out they brought up Pam to her kid, Hyde stared directly into the eyes of Aidan. Not bothering to act oblivious like the others. "Why would your grandma tell you that?" He asked, his sunglasses hiding a twisting emotion appearing into his eyes.

It was none of his business - he knew that better than the other meddling-idiots - but one thing Hyde would never stand for, was someone blaming a child over the suffering of their parents. Sure, Hyde didn't know this woman, didn't know whatever went on in the ol' Taylor-household when they were off living their fairytale life in Chicago, but _still_. That's something you don't say to a kid. (Especially since the words could be twisted around, making the kid think that it was his fault.)

His mother - Gross Edna, as many of his classmates loved to call her when he was in High School - always told him that he was the reason why they lived in that shitty-excuse for a house, that he was the cause of the poverty following after them like their shadows, and that he was what got in the way of her dreams. (Oh, those sparkly-sequent dreams of being a country singer.)

But even though Hyde always had the wittiest remark to throw at his mother of her accusing comments, he always felt guilty. Always. It wasn't until the day she ran from him, the day she finally left him, that he stopped.

Clearing his throat, almost like he was pushing away the memories of his childhood, Hyde focused his attention back on Jackie's son.

"….I asked her why my mommy was always crying." The boy decided to response after a silent minute, knowing that it would be nothing if he said this to his mother's friends. After all, it wasn't like it was a grand secret, every one knew his mom was always in a gloomy-state. (But then again, had it been a good idea to trust them? His father did say once that if anyone found out what happened at home, they'd take him away from them. That he'd never get to see his mom again.) "Grandma Sara loves my mommy a lot, she just worries. But she says as long as I am there, mom will be fine."

"Why's that?" Donna asked.

Aidan smiled, a true smile. Something making his make face glow, the innocence of a child appearing for the first time on his face, taking away whatever baggage there could have been before. "Mommy says I'm her best friend."

"Aw, kid." Ruffling his hair indifferently, Eric rose to his feet and leaned on the edge of the kitchen-counter. "That's disgustingly sweet, honestly."

"Eric." Donna frowned behind Aidan's back. "Don't be a jackass."

But Forman shrugged, not really knowing what ticked his girlfriend off. "Well, I'm sorry, it's Jackie we are talking about here. When has she ever been the maternal-type? Remember when Betsy was born and she bought her that car-freshener to hang on her neck? Because she didn't want to change her diaper?"

"….Maybe she had to learn to like babies." Before Donna could snap at Eric, before Kelso could even think back to that time, Aidan shut all of them up with his comment. "That's what my daddy once said."

"Okay, dumbasses, stop questioning the three year-old - -" With a swift swing of the swinging-door, Red Forman appeared freshly washed, and with an irritated expression on his elderly face at the people inside his house. "What the hell he is going to know, he can't even read."

Scowling, Aidan jumped off Donna's lap as the others rose to their feet too. "I'm five."

"No one cares." Mister Forman snapped at the boy, taking the keys from the counter. "Kelso, go find your daughter, we are leaving in two minutes."

"Aye, aye, captain!" Kelso saluted, hurrying towards the basement without a retort. (Well, even he knew not to mess with Red when it came to going to the hospital.)

**X **

"- -Doctor Garret, line three."

"Family of Tony Chavez- -"

"- -Excuse me, nurse, can you give me any information on my son?"

"Move! Move! My wife's having a baby- -"

Feeling like her head was spinning in every direction, all the voices, all the noises that started invading her eardrums as soon as she entered through the hospital's doors, Jackie moved aside for a man pushing his heaving-wife in a wheel chair towards a passing-nurse.

She felt like she was being overwhelmed that second, like she was stuck in the middle of a twister and she had let her body go limp; allowing herself to be twirled around in circles, all the air of her surroundings jamming itself through her ears and insides.

Breathing in deeply, like how she had learned during her son's birth, Jackie stumbled a little backwards; her hands clutching onto the first thing she could grab.

She didn't know exactly what was going on, why she suddenly felt like her world was crashing into pieces all around her, falling like anchors from buildings every inch around her. She started feeling uncontrollable since she got into the cab, but she could only guess it was because she was finally alone. Finally on her own, able to fully _feel _what was going on around her, how miserable and pained she felt for setting foot back on Point Place. How seeing everyone was breaking her shreds of heart all over again; she could finally see how big her lies had gotten.

"- -Excuse me, Miss?" Blinking up from the blur of images going on around her, the brunette found a blonde nurse looking at her calmly, a pile of files open in front of her. "Are you alright?"

Jackie blew a puff of air out through her lips, her legs shaking a little in the process. "I'm fine." She said in a tired whisper, giving a failed attempt of a smile at the nurse.

"Are you sure?" The nurse questioned, raising a light eyebrow at her. "I'm sure I can get a doctor to take a look at you, you look quite pale."

And at that, almost like she had told Jackie she had invented a time-machine, the brunette stood upright in less than a second, even removing her hands from the counter and looking proud and tall. (Well, as tall as a petite woman can appear.) She could not risk a doctor taking a 'look' at her; especially since her bruises were fresh. "Totally fine, honestly." She smiled grander, aiming that phony smile she had mastered in her time in Chicago. "Actually, can you help me with something?"

The blonde nurse gave a single nod.

"I'm looking for Kitty Forman's room, she's a patient in permanent-care."

"You know Mrs. Forman?" The nurse asked roughly, a questioning look on her face as Jackie narrowed her eyes at her. "I'm sorry, that sounded really rude." She amended, clearing her throat as a doctor passed behind the brunette; close enough in hearing range. "It's just the same people always visit Mrs. Forman."

Keeping her facial expression controlled, Jackie crossed her arms over her chest. "Yeah, well, I just came back into town."

"Oh." Feeling like nurse Becky, as her tag read, was examining her, Jackie stayed silent as she opened her mouth to speak again. "You must be Jackie Burkhart then, right?"

Jackie kept her silence.

"I'm being rude again, huh?" Becky laughed to herself, an awkwardness to her giggles as she closed the files in front of her. "I've been one of Mrs. Forman's regular nurses since she was hospitalized, and I spent a lot of time with her before she went into a coma." The nurse explained. "She talked a lot about Eric and his friends, and I met all of them. Except for one - _you_."

Looking directly into the nurse's eyes, she felt judged. Jackie felt like the nurse thought the worse of her, of how Mrs. Forman had been like a second mother to all of Eric's friends, how Mrs. Forman had been there for Jackie when she was left alone, and not once had Jackie appeared to visit her. "Can I have her room number, or not?" The brunette asked harshly, judging herself internally.

"Of course, I'm sorry." Becky apologized, pulling on a smile that the brunette easily identified as fake. "She's on the fifth-floor, room one-ten."

Not saying anything, nor sparing the blonde another look, Jackie walked away from the reception and towards the elevator of the hospital, her heart thumping and a memory flooding in.

'_Look at yourself, Jacqueline, what did you honestly expect?'_

_The words were piercing her hearing like needles, hurting her as she looked down at the floor beneath her; fat tears rolling down her usually-rosy cheeks and past her neck. Her hands were shaking from the sobbing, her chest heaving up and down from the air she could not get, her throat on fire as she gripped the pants of her plaid-pajamas._

'_Answer me!' The voice commanded._

'_I…I.' But she couldn't find hers, not even when she was ordered to do so. All she could do was cry, all she could do was kneel on their bedroom floor in her misery._

_She heard steps coming towards her, stepping on the things scattered around them from their earlier physical fight. 'There is a lot of things that you are, Jacqueline, but stupid is not one of them.' She saw pointed-black shoes, those kind that important men use, pointed in front of her. 'You knew all along about it, didn't you?'_

_Shaking her head roughly, not wanting to remember what she had stumbled on earlier that day, Jackie continued clutching on to her pajamas. 'I thought….I thought you _loved _me.' She swallowed her cries, but her tears still rolling out. _

_Feeling soft fingers grab a hold of her chin, Jackie's eyes met a pair of green ones, the man staring at her as he laughed a mocking laugh. 'We've been married for a year, Jacqueline, I would say I do love you.' His words were sincere, she knew, but so were his insults. '- -_But look at yourself_!"_

_Jackie shook her head again, tearing her hands away from her legs and slapping them on either of her ears; refusing to hear him as he shouted at her._

_Glaring at the disobedience, at the disrespect she was showing him, Andrew pulled himself closer to the tiny brunette. 'You disgust me.' He hissed through his teeth, tearing her hands away from her ears; placing his lips by the right-side of her face. 'Everything about you has gotten so repulsive lately. I mean, look at yourself, Jacqueline.'_

_She sobbed louder, chills racing up her spine at the whisper of his words._

'_Did you honestly believe that I would want you like this?' He continued, breaking her more than she had been since they got married. 'Did you really think I would want to…touch you looking the way you do?' His tone got more aggressive, more enraged with the woman. 'And you wanted me to remain faithful this way?'_

'…_.Stop.' She cried, shaking her head once more; not wanting to hear him. 'Stop.'_

_He rolled his eyes, not caring for her dramatics. 'Get over it, it's not like I'm leaving you for her. She's just a pastime, _you're_ my wife.'_

'_No…No.' Jackie cried. 'You ch-cheated, there c-can't be a marriage.' She scooted herself away from him. 'I d-don't forgive you, Andrew.'_

_Feeling a hot-flash of anger enter his system, because how dare she talk-back, how dare she contradict him, he stretched his arm towards her and gripped her neck. Pulling her arm viciously as he rose to his feet again. 'You don't _forgive _me?' It came out like a heated snort._

'_No.' She managed to squeak out._

_How could she? How could she after everything he had done, after everything she had gone through? She had promised herself long ago, back to a time that could not be mentioned, that she would never stick by anyone who would cheat on her? Ever. _

_And this would not be the same, not even when she had assumed all her life that marriage was sacred. (But she had been wrong about so many things all her life.)_

'_No one's going to want you now, Jacqueline!' He shouted at her, gripping her neck harder and giving her a shake as she shed tears again. 'No one ever will!'_

'_Stop, stop!' She whimpered, shutting her eyes tight._

_And in the distance, somewhere a hall away, the sound of a baby crying entered their bedroom. Stopping both of them from their separate actions, freezing them for a slight second._

'…_.Aidan ruined your perfect, little body when you popped him out.' Choosing to ignore the crying of the child in another room, Andrew hissed low to his wife, dropping her back on the floor. 'It's his fault.'_

_Jackie put her head down, hiding her shame and weakness._

'_Why did you want him, Jacqueline?' Andrew asked, genuinely curious. 'Adoption would have suited him better than having us for parents, I told you that. We weren't ready for him.'_

'…_It's not true.' Jackie mumbled back, sniffling. 'Aidan…Aidan's everything to me.'_

_Looking at his emotionally-destroyed wife for a second, Andrew headed towards the dresser; grabbing his keys. 'Well, he isn't my everything. But you, Jacqueline - you I own forever.' _

_Beep. Beep. Beep._

_She was standing perfectly still, her tortured-eyes staring at a woman she had considered her mother more than her own, Jackie followed very tube and wire that tied the woman into her hospital bed. She looked so fragile, Mrs. Forman, lying so helplessly; something she never was as Jackie remembered._

_But that wasn't Mrs. Forman, it couldn't be. She wasn't bubbly, she wasn't smiling, she wasn't giggling, she wasn't caring or being motherly. That just couldn't be her, not forever at least._

_And if there was one thing that Jackie remembered about Mrs. Forman, it was her ability to make any of the kids feel better. Make them feel lighter, like their worries were none because none of them had to live with menopause. (Oh, how she loved that excuse.)_

"_Mrs. Forman…?" Jackie called almost like she was expecting for the woman to answer back. And of course she didn't, but she didn't care. She just needed to be listened to, she needed to tell someone of her misery, of the tale that broke Point Place's princess._

"_A lot has happened since the last time I saw you, everything actually." She let out a single chuckle. "I'm married now, with a once-wonderful guy named Andrew…I have a beautiful son, Aidan."_

Beep. Beep. Beep.

She took a few steps closer to the bed, towards Mrs. Forman. "…I'm in an abusive marriage." A tear rolled down her cheek, feeling an odd feeling of pressure leaving her shoulders. She finally got to say it, she finally got to tell someone without fear. "Andrew says we're going to be together forever, we're going to die together, which I'm sure he means….

My past was buried when I married him, Mrs. Forman. Everything who I used to be, every one that I knew were left behind because he made me believe life didn't exist before. And with that, I pushed away the only thing that c-can save my little b-boy."

Tears raced down faster, her knees shaking again; her feet threatening not to support her petite body up anymore.

And as she tried to settle herself, outside the hospital room, footsteps approached the door. Someone was there, unheard by the brunette.

"…H-He could've been saved."

Jackie's voice was thick with pain, causing the person to halt outside of the room. Choosing not to make themselves present inside the room with her, instead they listened carefully. ( Poor Jackie forgot to close the door fully.)

"But that's my f-fault. All of it, and I w-will pay for it." She shook her brown waves, crying more tears. "I should have kept him safe, it's my fault."

The person outside the door placed a hand on the door, tempted to burst into the room and sooth her, but too frozen to move.

"I can't tell Aidan Andrew isn't his father, it will break his heart." Jackie wiped away one side of her face. "Andrew gave Aidan something he was going to need. He's his only father, he protected him when I couldn't….He accepted me when he knew I carried someone else's kid, he gave us another chance."

With a heart beating fast, with a gasp passing through their lips, the person outside tore away from the door; disbelief crossing their features as they raced away. They just couldn't hear it anymore, it had been too much. A secret finally confessed, something sincere that Jackie Burkhart finally let out since her arrival.

"I have suffered for my mistakes, for my lies." Jackie whispered to the comatose woman, breathing in deeply. "I love my son, he is everything to me, but if only you could see, Mrs. Forman…If only you could see him and see my pain." She inhaled again, her chest hurting with a secret that did not want to leave; that was gripping onto her bones.

But she needed to be freed, even if for a second.

"….He looks so much like Steven, Mrs. Forman."

* * *

**AN: Hey, guys! Well, here you go. Another chapter.**

**I first wanted to say that for those who say that the story is dragging on, I AGREE, but just letting you know it's kicking up a notch staring now. So don't worry about it. And thanks for reading. And IF you see any grammatical errors or just errors in general, excuse me. I'm running low on sleep, I'm rushing, and this isn't my computer. I'm in New York for the summer, visiting a friend, and yeah. I just wanted to update. (:**


	12. The Hidden Truth and the Broken Lies

**Chapter Twelve: The Hidden Truth and the Broken Lies**_  
_

_Tick. Tock._

He shook his head.

_Tick. Tock._

He tapped his foot.

_Tick. Tock._

He squeezed his fists together.

_Tick. Tock._

His breath became a little ragged.

_Tick. Tock._

He could feel his face turning red.

"- -Um, Mister Forman?"

"What?"

_Tick. Tock._

He was infuriated.

Taking a step back away from the deeply angered eyes of the old man, Aidan Taylor had to wait a few seconds to settle his heartbeat.

And noticing the scare he gave the little boy, Red Forman managed to gather all of his patience and breathe it in. "Yes?" He asked a little more softly, more hesitantly. (After all, his ticking fury was not the boy's fault.)

"Can - Can I just go sit in the corner?" Aidan asked, pointing a small finger to the furthest chair in the waiting-room of the Hospital.

Red smiled slightly. "I like you." He told the boy amused, and then spoke again. "But no. We have to wait for your mother, just stay put."

Knowing better than to counter-argue anyone's orders, especially an adult's, Aidan did not take off the look of determination on his baby-face. "…I just want to be alone." He said sincerely. He just wanted to sit in that chair and think, think back an hour ago.

Had he said too much to these people? What if they mentioned something to his mother? Or worse, his father? There would surely be a beating coming if he let something slip out, and he just wanted to think back.

Mister Forman narrowed his eyes for a second at Aidan, looking thoughtful. It had been obvious that the boy wasn't like the rest of the children, not even close to energetic as Betsy Kelso was. And even though he liked that about him, because he could not deal with more children after having had five of them growing up in his house when he was trying to just raise his own, Red couldn't help but to see that that wasn't normal.

That boy wasn't normal.

"Alright." Red said after a minute. "Just don't go jumping on the chairs or anything, or I'll kick your ass, boy."

"I'm not three." Aidan mumbled under his breath, turning away from him and heading to his seat.

"- -_Dad_!" Bursting in through the glass doors of the room, Eric Forman looked exhausted and nervous as he slipped on the tiled floor. Quickly picking himself up as his father turned, just as some nurses did. "Um - Hi - Hey." He cleared his throat, his voice came out too squeaky. "Where's everyone?"

From a few feet away, the receptionist glared at the scrawny man. "_Shhh_."

Eric knitted his eyebrows as Becky, the nurse, pointed a finger at a sign that asked for silence. "…Sorry."

"You see that boy- -" With his voice firm and loud, Red caught his son's attention by pointing a finger towards Aidan. "He acts more mature than you and he is only three!"

Eric widened his eyes, and the receptionist pretended like she did not hear the man's shouts. (Even she knew not to mess with Mister Forman.)

"What the hell's wrong with you!"

The younger Forman gulped, taking a shaky step back. Glancing quickly at Aidan, who was swinging his feet silently. "….Well, he is the devil's spawn. I'm sure he is formulating a plan to destroy the world right about now."

Mister Forman narrowed his eyes at Eric, shaking his head like he was full of shame in that moment. "I'm positive your mother drank secretly when she was pregnant with you."

But before Eric could put his foot in his mouth and make situations worse, Hyde appeared through the same glass doors. "Hey." He said oddly, his expression matching his tone.

Forman raised his eyebrow, noticing his brother's strange appearance. "Where were you, Hyde?"

The curly-haired man mirrored his actions. "Where were _you_, man?"

"I asked first."

"Yeah, but I'll kick your ass."

"That's not how it works."

"Why do you even care, Forman?"

"- -Shut it." Red snapped before the two continued on with their rambling.

_Bam._

All three of the men turned when someone landed hard-on the floor, sliding a few inches as a little girl closed the doors of the waiting-room with a panicked expression.

"_Kelso_!"

Scurrying up as fast as he could, Michael looked horrified and anxious as he stared at everyone. "You will never guess what just happened- -"

"Daddy stole a wheelchair." Betsy cut in as she stepped away from the doors, looking up at her 'Grandfather Forman'. "He crashed it into some test tubes."

"Eric was there too!" Kelso chimed in before the vein in Mister Forman's temple could explode and kill him. "He was the one pushing me!"

The older man turned to his son. "You stole a wheelchair?" He snapped, his heartbeat rising in fury. "What the hell is wrong with all of you? You're all almost twenty-four years old!"

"Yeah, yeah, we're immature! Whatever!" Kelso breathed, not even noticing when Red turned his deadly glare at him. "After we ran for it, I accidentally ended up in one of the upstairs floors and you'll never guess what I heard!"

Red clenched his fist. "No one cares, Kelso."

"No, no, trust me, you'll want to hear this, dude."

And just as he was a millisecond away from attacking Kelso, Red Forman was halted when Betsy shouted an, "Aunt Donna!" Her thin arm waving high in the air.

And there, leaning against the entrance doors of the waiting-room, staring at the floor blankly like she was about to pass out or faint, Donna looked up and towards her group.

"You okay, Donna?" Eric was the first to ask, walking over to her as she looked a little paler than usual.

She shook her head. "…Nothing."

"Are you sure?" Her boyfriend pressed, still looking at her warily. "You looked freaked out, just like Hyde."

"I'm not freaked out." Hyde grunted, frowning through his sunglasses. "I don't get freaked out, Forman. I'm not a pansy."

"Of course not. That's why you didn't look like you just saw a ghost when you came in." Eric said in a sarcastic tone.

Hyde glared more, even though he knew Eric could not see it. (But, oh, he was sure he felt it.)

Donna reached for Eric's hand. "It's nothing, I'm just- -" And the rest was cut off as someone pushed the doors and Donna's head banged against the glass. "- -What the hell!" But her anger was quickly faded when her green-eyes met a familiar pair.

"Oh, sorry, Donna." Jackie apologized instantly, looked a little startled. "I - When did you get here?"

"Like twenty minutes ago." Eric answered her.

Jackie gave a simple nod, sniffing a little as she patted her cheeks gently.

And knowing perfectly well that those actions were usually made by the small brunette whenever she had been crying - not to mentioned the bright red-coloring to her eyes that she had witnessed when she came in - Donna threw her a questionable stare. "You've been crying." She said bluntly, her remark a comment rather than a question.

Jackie let out a small puff of a giggle. "Of course not." She told them, sure that everyone was now looking at her. "Just allergies."

"In a hospital?" But the redhead did not take that as an answer.

"Where's Aidan?" Jackie turned away, ignoring her.

Also giving her a calculating stare, Red nodded over to the seating area. "You have one strange kid, Jackie."

Pushing past through all of their stares, almost like if they were trying to scout for tears that Donna accused her of shedding, Jackie sighed internally with defeat. Her eyes catching sight of her little boy seating on that chair, swinging his feet back and forth, no expression at all on his face.

He was thinking again; thoughts that no children should have in his head at that age.

It should have broken her heart, the way he stared at nothing, the way he was probably thinking about something horrific that has become a memory, but it already has. Her heart had been broken forever now, it seems. She knew that Aidan was never going to be a just like the other boys, he didn't have the perfect childhood. No friends, no loving memories to tell, no adventures to experience, no decent home-life to make him grow happy and healthy.

"…He's interesting." Jackie turned, her torturing thoughts snapped away from her son as she heard that voice speak. "There's something about him, but that kid's cool."

The petite woman stared at Hyde with a nothingness shining on her face, no emotion. "Apparently he gets that from his paternal side." She whispered in response, knowing that she was going straight to hell for this lie. "My father-in-law says Andrew was the exact same way, so it's kind of usual for us - his weirdness."

Hyde said nothing, and the both continued to share a look. Something there, something ready to scream out from both sides. Except neither said anything. Jackie just cleared her throat, instantly feeling bad for the lie she had just thrown out to them. (Mister Taylor in fact knew that Aidan was not his son's, and ironically, that made him love the boy even more.)

"Alright, it's about time you dumbasses get the hell out of her." Red interjected in the awkward silence circling the air. "Don't destroy my house or there will be hell to pay. I'll call when I'm ready to go home, so no drinking."

"Yes, sir." They all said in unison, everyone walking out in silence.

Except for one who waited behind, watching thoroughly as Jackie went for her son; the truth of everything shining in that boy's eyes. A half-truth that person now knew, and was determined to resolve.

**X**

"- -Where the hell have you been?" Greeted an angry foreign voice, just in the exact moment that five adults and two children entered through the sliding-door

"What are- -"

"I have been here for an hour! With nothing to eat! " Fez stood by the stove, looking angry at his friends and ignoring Eric's would be sentence. "I came, no one was home. I had to crawl through the tiny window in the basement!"

Hyde rolled his eyes, not caring for the tanned man's feelings or allegations. "We went to the hospital, man, now stop your bitching." He snapped, throwing himself on one of the chairs.

"…Son of a bitch." Fez muttered, dropping his glare. (Mention Mrs. Kitty and he was as soft as a teddy bear.) "…You got me." He said in a whisper, closing his eyes as he felt all sorts of nostalgia crawling up his chest.

Mrs. Forman was a touchy subject for him, just like it was for the others. He came so young into this country, not knowing anyone and trying to make something of himself. He left a home behind, his family. He had a mother, a father, and a sister - _his family_. A family that he is ashamed to say he can't remember their appearances, can't recall the color or shape of his mother's eyes…..

But luckily for him, after meeting Eric, he met Mrs. Forman. A woman so lovely and warm that made him feel not so alone anymore. Even though he had friends, a boy would always need his mother or something close like it. And even though he would die before mentioning it to anyone else, Fez was glad that if he had to suffer from being so far away from his own mother, that he found some sort of comfort in Mrs. Forman's eyes.

"…Fez, are you hungry?" Staring at Fez, staring at his sadness that radiated as much as his brown skin, Jackie spoke up to break it.

He nodded slowly. "Yes." He mumbled. "Yes, I am."

Jackie tried not to laugh, but her memories served Fez' justice. He would always be like a child, needy and hungry. "I can make you something if you want."

"I can put the Poptarts in the toaster by myself, Jackie."

The brunette frowned. "I meant like I'll make you some eggs or something."

Fez raised his eyebrow, aiming a questioning look at Kelso and Hyde. "Um, no, no." He said hesitantly, watching worriedly as Hyde and Kelso smirked at one another. Almost like if they were daring him to eat whatever his 'goddess' cooked up, like if it would kill him instantly. "I like Poptarts. They're…tarty."

Kelso and Hyde nodded, 'smart move' their eyes said.

And catching the two, Donna reached over and smacked both of them on the head. "Ignore them Fez, Jackie's cooking is fine. These two just like to scare you."

"Daddy's mean!" Betsy shouted, taking in what he redhead woman just said. "Bad daddy! You apologize to Uncle Fez!"

Michael looked uncomfortable. "Betsy, I was just playing, sweetie- -"

"_Now_!" She glared at him, her light brown-eyes looking firm as she stomped her foot down.

"Sorry, man." Kelso retorted quickly, slightly scared. (_Women_.)

Betsy smiled proudly, earning a high-five from Donna. "Come on, Aidan. I'll show you some toys I have hidden in the basement."

And before the boy could answer, Aidan was dragged off down the hall of the kitchen by the little girl.

Hyde snorted, slouching more on his seat. "Seems like Kelso will always be ordered around by bossy little midgets."

His eyes flickered to Jackie, bare and naked. His sunglasses resting on the tabletop.

"Maybe because they know what's good for him." Jackie mumbled awkwardly, turning away fast from his blue-orbs.

Her ex scoffed. "Yeah, that must be it." So sardonic as always. "It's certainly can't be the fact that he's such a coward and never stands up to little annoying brunettes."

The rest of the gang looked between the two old lovers, not really sure what was going on nor what was about to go down.

"…She'll kill him." Donna whispered to the guys, looking scared herself.

Eric nodded in agreement, taking a slow step back. "…Maybe we should take the kids away from the murder-house."

"…I'm not a whimp." Kelso protested silently, not daring to jump into Hyde and Jackie's conversation.

"Of course not." Fez whispered back, putting a comforting hand on his best friend's shoulder. "You're just easy to boss, like a puppy."

In the air, Jackie's loud exhale silenced the conversations in the background. All eyes watching carefully as she crossed her arms. "…You just never understood." She said to Hyde, her voice showing no sign of expected-fury or hurt. It was just simple, plain, and flat. A tone filled with nothingness, just like she had trained it to be so.

Living in a façade tended to do that to people, making them permanently blank on the outside. A master of disguise, if you will. None of them would even recognize Jackie if she truly showed them how she really looked, what her insides really looked like.

They just continued looking at memory of who she used to be, never realizing that fully she was gone now. And she was never coming back.

But unlike her, Steven Hyde never changed. He just wasn't capable of that, he felt conformity in the past and that's where he wanted to be. In all the things he knew perfectly well, in a place where he had all the answers, somewhere he knew what would always happen and nothing would catch him off guard; because all of that was in his control.

"I guess I never did." He almost spat at her, his anger still on his face like it was accustom. "That's probably the reason why you always ran back to Kelso, right? You always liked to control everyone, and when you couldn't do that with me he was the only idiot who was willing to take it. I'm sure those people in the hotel room would agree."

"_Oooh_." The group in the back winced.

But despite that low blow, Jackie's facial expression stayed the same. Her bright eyes blank as ever, no hurt, no shock. There was nothing, her armor. "Maybe I just wanted more out of life, and I couldn't get that from you."

Hyde's foot began to tap.

"…Thank God I found Andrew, because that's what I deserved. More than the life either you or Michael could give me in this mediocre town. " She continued, daring to look at him with a smile on her face that pained her to give. Every word a bullet to her brain.

"Really?" Hyde's foot tapped faster, his fist clenched together as he crossed his arms across his chest.

Jackie nodded, swallowing a knot he could not see. Trying to calm her hurting heart. "You were right all along, Hyde." She smiled a little wider. "I shouldn't have pressured you into marrying me. It would have been a mistake anyway, I didn't know anything." (_I don't regret the way everything turned out_, she added in thought.). "Didn't know that outside of Point Place a better life was waiting for me." Lying will always be her sin, and every one of them was drenched in venom. "It helped me figure out that, you know what, maybe I never loved you at all. Just passing the time, what else is there to do here?"

Eric turned to Hyde, noticing the red tint appearing on his cheeks. No doubt some sort of hurt trying to push its way out. "…Low blow." He whispered to his friends.

"…What did _I _ever do to her?" Kelso asked aghast.

"…Bitchy." Fez grinned bemusedly.

Not really knowing who to stare at, not really knowing who was wrong nor who crossed the line, all Donna knew was that someone was about to murder the other. "- -Okay!" And she couldn't let that happened, Mister Forman had left specific orders of no destruction done to the house. "Guys, why don't you go down to the basement and have a few beers?"

At the quick tension that had made itself known when Donna decided to interfere with their arguing, Jackie turned to the stove. "…I'll call you when your food is ready, Fez." She said to the foreigner, not looking at him as she turned on one of the dials.

"Come on, guys!" Eric squeaked happily, following Donna's plan. "Beer and it's not even the afternoon yet, it's like Christmas!"

Kelso looked confused as Eric ushered him away from the chairs. "But we always have beer on mornings? And when it's not Christmas."

"Which means we can get Fez into the dress earlier!" Erick answered again.

Well aware that the brunette could not see him, because he knew she refused to look at him after what she said, Hyde snorted heatedly. "_Whatever_."

"That's the spirit!" Erick sang, following after his brother.

For a moment, nothing else was heard but the sounds of the guys footsteps on the floor and then down the staircase.

And not letting the silence prolong itself, Donna's emerald-eyes looked toward her tiny friend; who was staring at the flame that ignited from one of the plates of the stove. "…_Jackie_?"

But no response came from the small brunette, instead the latter rolled her sleeves silently. Still looking at the flame, her eyes somewhere far way as she placed her palm above it. She felt a twinge of pain. She felt the heat soar deeply into her layers of skin, her palm turning red quickly. She could feel a searing sensation, but she kept it there. No thoughts, no memories, no questions, just the feeling of that pain.

"Jackie!" The redhead hissed, pushing the brunette back as she gawked at her. What the hell are you doing?"

She was shaken out of her trance, and shut her hand. Her burning skin pulling itself and adding to the hurt, she winced.

"Are - Are you okay?" Donna asked, still looking shaken up herself.

"Yeah." Jackie replied with a nod. "It didn't hurt, learning to cook made me fireproof." She let out a humorless laugh but her old friend did not notice.

"I didn't mean the fire, Jackie." Donna went on. "I meant….I mean what Hyde said to you."

The brunette nodded again, turning to grab a pan from the other side of the kitchen. "Sure."

She was so nonchalant, Donna didn't buy it for a second. "…It didn't bother you that he brought up the past like that? I mean, he doesn't speak to you and when he does it's just to insult you."

Jackie shrugged, appearing again by the stove. "I honestly don't care, Donna." She placed the pan on the open flame. "I'm used to it. It was always Hyde's thing to insult me. It didn't bother me before and it wont bother me now."

"…You're telling me you never missed him?" Donna dared to ask.

"Nope." Jackie replied quickly, so indifferent. "Never crossed my head."

"But…you loved him."

The brunette tore her eyes away from the stove to look up at the other woman, blank expression ready and all. "Did you not hear what I told him, Donna? I never loved him."

"I don't believe that."

Jackie sighed, rolling her eyes. "I didn't know what love was back then, not at least until I met Andrew. Hyde and Michael are in the past, Donna. Just stupid teenage mistakes. I'm an adult now. Twenty-two years old with a high executive-job. Not to mention that I'm married, I have a home, my own family."

Donna sighed too. "And are you happy?"

"Blissfully." Jackie said without thinking it.

But she didn't believe her, Donna saw no sign of it. Nothing that expressed that bliss, nothing that glowed with Jackie's eternal happiness. The closet thing she saw the brunette and happiness mix was when she looked into Aidan's eyes. That sparkle of a mother staring at her child like they were the most beautiful thing on the planet; only hers.

"Can I ask you something?" Donna spoke again. "When did you meet Andrew?"

"When I first arrived to Chicago." Jackie said. "He worked in the same place I happened to get hired, and it all went from there."

"How long ago?" Donna watched Jackie break the eggs.

"Almost five years ago."

"How long have you been married to him?" Donna continued with the questions, trying to calculate the math in her head. And nothing was adding up.

"Four years and seven months next Tuesday."

"You didn't even wait that long before you got married?"

Jackie turned back to look at the redhead, annoyance now starting to show. "No, we didn't, Donna. We married three months after meeting each other, happy?"

Donna frowned. "So, basically, you fell for him on the spot? Love at first sight?"

"We were pretty serious. He loved me a lot, and I felt the same for him. There was no need to wait." Somehow she couldn't make herself sound convincing. "And well…things happened, Donna, and we didn't want to have our child out of wedlock."

Donna paused for a second, her brows furrowing. "You were pregnant three months into your relationship?"

"Yes." She replied quickly again. "Andrew couldn't wait to be a father."

"_Liar_." But this time Donna was done listening to her quick remarks.

Jackie turned, an eyebrow raised in question. "Excuse me?"

And the redhead did not back down, did not take a step back or explained herself. (After all, record showed, she was never afraid of Jackie Burkhart.) "You're lying to me, and I know it. You're not happy, so tell me the truth. No more lies, I know."

The brunette scoffed, looking back down at the pan with a shake of her waves. "I doubt you know anything about my current life, Donna, so I suggest you don't come up with conclusions that will end up making you look stupid."

Donna bit her lip, inhaling once. "You forget that I know you, Jackie."

"You don't know _anything _about me!" To both women's surprise, Jackie found herself yelling. The bubble of everything exploding in that moment, her annoyance and irritation to the redhead no longer contained. "You don't know anything!"

"You're my best friend, Jackie, I know!" Donna matched her tone. "I know you better than anyone else!"

Jackie let out an evil-sounding laughter; almost hysteric-like. "We were never best friends, Donna! You never knew anything about me before, and you definitely don't know anything now! How much can you possible say you know me!"

"…Well enough." Donna replied in a murmur, biting her lip.

Jackie shook her head, that laughter coming out of her mouth again. "The person you allegedly knew so well is dead, Donna. She isn't coming back. The day I left Point Place I left her behind. Buried with the memories of you and everyone else."

Donna remained silent for another few seconds, watching a tear fall against Jackie's wishes. "…You came here with barriers that won't allow anyone in, Jackie."

Jackie wiped that traitor tear. "Then you should've never asked me to come." She said low and angry. "I was perfectly fine living my life away from all of you."

And almost copying the same laughter the brunette had let out, Donna took a step back from the woman as she clucked her tongue. "You might claim that you changed, Jackie, but you will never stop being a Liar!" She shouted at her.

"Shut up." Jackie retorted, ignoring her.

"Andrew is not Aidan's father- -" But Donna knew how to get her attention back with a secret she was never going to tell.

Jackie gasped, dropping the plate she was about to serve Fez' food on due to the fact that she swore in that second that her heart stopped beating.

"I heard you in Mrs. Forman's room." Donna continued, hissing. "You really have to learn how to close the door all the way before you start spilling your secrets to the comatose, Jackie."

There was silence, thick silence.

Jackie was shaking her head, trying to gasp for air. "…Shut up." She puffed out, her skin feeling numb.

"What did you get yourself into?"

"Shut up!" Jackie shouted, everything had started spinning. "You - You don't know what you're talking about. Andrew's Aidan's father. I-I…I don't…_Shut up_!"

Donna shook her head, looking at Jackie with a disappointment. "Stop lying." She snapped. "Stop lying and tell the truth for once! I'm your friend, Jackie, just tell me! Be honest with me!"

"Shut up, shut up." Jackie chanted, a hysteria crawling up her spine and into her system.

"Jackie, just tell me!"

"No, no."

"Tell me!"

"Steven!" Jackie finally cried, not being able to take the overwhelming feeling that had gripped her bones. Tears were falling so fast, her heartbeat beating along with it, and her lungs struggling to get some air. She fell to the ground, her knees landing on the broken fragments of glass.

The redhead woman took a shaky step back, a hand over her mouth. "Hyde - Hyde's the father?"

But before the emotion or the news could sink in, loud footsteps started thumping on the floor and approaching them. "- - What's going on?" Arriving with the same shout, Eric and Hyde stared between the two women.

"Donna, what happened?" Eric asked, noticed the broken fragments of plate on the floor of his kitchen and the crying brunette.

But his girlfriend ignored him, taking a few steps towards the brunette. "…Jackie."

And as she approached, as Donna put her palms on her shoulders, that was the first time in a long time Jackie let herself sob. A kind of cry that spooked Donna a pale color, that made Eric cringe, and that made Hyde's chest hurt.

"Don't tell, Donna, p-please don't tell." Jackie cried, gripping onto Donna as she felt all of those walls the redhead had accused her of having fall.

From the corner of her teary eyes, as she hugged her destroyed friend, Donna spared Hyde a glance. Noticing the worry he had for the crying woman, but she quickly focused her vision to the floor. There was just so much.

"…I promise." She murmured to Jackie, hugging her so tightly and never knowing in that moment that there was so much more linked to Hyde's paternity.

* * *

**AN: I APOLOGIZE FOR ANY GRAMMATICAL ERRORS OR NONSENSE.**

**With that being said, I'm tired, guys! Ugh. I've been working nonstop this week and I barely got to finish this chapter up. So I hope you like it.**

**And again I am sorry if there's a lot of errors, but can you'll for give me? Please.**

**Thank you. (:**


	13. All The Right Moves

**Chapter Thirteen: All The Right Moves**

"_..I promise."_

He took a step back, feeling like the kitchen had suddenly caved in and the air was becoming thick. He felt almost stricken, raging feelings of worry and confusion were pooling inside of him. Filling up his chest, floating to his organs - it was weird, nonetheless. He just watched her cry, Donna holding onto her like if she was afraid she was going to break if she let go. An agonizing sound was passing through her lips. Cries so terrible that it seemed like she had been holding them in forever, like if she had been in pain for years now and she had finally found the cure to numb it all.

He cleared his throat a little, aiming a quick glance at Eric who looked like he wanted to join the women's embrace. Looking equally as confused as he felt.

"_Ugh_."

Hyde took another step back, her sob loud and scaring him backwards. He watched the scene still, not so brave to turn away, and he swore he could feel his heart breaking. And usually he would have come up with an excuse how he wasn't feeling bad for _her _and everything, but Hyde would be a liar if he said he didn't always hate seeing her cry. (Mostly because she tended to cling onto him, but everything was different now.)

He couldn't believe he was thinking this, but a part of him wanted to step forward and whisper soothing words to her. He wanted to make her feel better, to ease her cries, but he was not very good at that. His attempts to be sensitive always made him look like an asshole, so he just chose to stay in his place. After all, it wasn't his job to console her, not after everything they've been through.

He hated her, and he needed to remember that at all times. (Especially in these.)

"…Jackie, please." Donna whispered to the brunette, her own voice shaking with emotion too. "_Please_."

She had seen Jackie cry before, countless of times. When Kelso cheated on her; when they ended their relationship; when her father was arrested; the night she finally admitted to herself that her mother was not coming back; the moments she would stop and realize she was alone in the world, practically an orphan; when Hyde cheated on her; and when Hyde had caught her with Kelso in that hotel room, misinterpreting everything and ruining any shred of hope of them getting back together.

She had been through all of that with Jackie, trying to be a supportive friend as tears kept rolling, but never in her life did she imagine Jackie Burkhart could cry with so much feeling. With the impression that she was going to cry her soul out.

"…Donna?" Taking a step towards the women, a little unsure himself, Eric called out for his girlfriend. "Donna, is she alright?"

But instead of catching the redhead's attention, Eric triggered Jackie's; bringing her back to reality.

She had lost herself for a moment, reliving things and lost in memory. Thinking back to everything that had ever happened to her; almost like her life had gone rewind from that point backwards. Everything flashing before her eyes. Especially those last four years of her life - every beating, every insult, every tear shed, every bruise, every lie, every fake smile, every repulsive touch, every forced kiss.

And when she had cried, when she had allowed herself to open for that split second, she found a shade of freedom run by her. Her chest felt less tight, her head less cramped, her body less aching.

But then everything came back, like someone had finally let go of the rubber-band and it had smacked her skin like a shock. "Donna." She breathed, not exactly calling the redhead out. But more of her realizing what had happened, what she had confessed to her. She now knew; knew that Aidan was Hyde's son. He was _their _child.

"…Mommy?" At the sound of that little voice, every adult looked up to the one that spoke; everyone except the woman he called for.

Waving her hand behind her, gesturing for one of the guys to get rid of Aidan before could get a good look at the wreck had mother had just melted into.

And launching himself forward to the task, Eric grinned too over the top at the boy. "Hey, so I know your Uncle Kelso promised to show you all of Point Place, and I'm thinking we take up his offer right now." The scrawny man waved his arms excitedly. "Come on! It'll be fun! We have a lot of historical trademarks!"

Hyde narrowed his eyes. "Like what?"

"Like…the Hub." Eric replied unsurely, scowling at his brother for not backing him up. "There's the water tower, the pools, and the forest. And, oh! Mount Hump."

"Forman, we're not taking the kids to Mount Hump." Hyde retorted. "They haven't had all their vaccinations yet, you'll never know what they can get from there."

And not really paying attention into the rambling the two men were doing, Aidan stepped closer to the women on the ground. "Mom." He called her again, placing a careful hand on her shoulder. "Mommy."

All attention was back on the brunette, everyone waiting to see if she would react by her son's touch.

"…Aidan, kiddo, why don't you go with your Uncle Eric and - and Uncle Hyde." Donna said through an awkward sensation in the pit of her stomach. (She was going to go to hell for this, she knows it.)

And almost like she shared that strange emotion with the redhead, Jackie picked her head up. Her emotions suddenly controlled, even as a batch of fresh tears were dying to push their way out of her eyes.

"Come on, Aidan, we'll go get the Kelsos." Eric continued, trying to help with the situation.

But not having the heart to keep putting her child through that, not wanting to give him one more experience of watching her crumble, Jackie pushed herself away from Donna's embrace. She took in a deep inhale, cleared her throat, let her heartbeat settled, and then turned to the others.

Hyde and Aidan were right next to each other, standing side by side. People had to be completely blind or stupid not to see their connection, their resemblance. The way their faces looked, the way their dirty-blonde hair curled at the crown of their head, or the way their intense blue-eyes shined.

The phrase 'like father and son' came into mind right then and there.

"I heard you from downstairs." Carefully, Aidan spoke. "…I got scared, mommy."

Jackie took in another puff of air, smiling this time. "Nothing to worry about, baby. Your Aunt Donna and I were just having a… _deep _conversation."

But Aidan knew his mother a little better than that, and the tears that she was now wiping from her face gave her away. "…You told her?" He asked in a murmur.

Donna knitted her eyebrows together, turning to Jackie now. "Told me what?"

"No." She replied fast, giving Aidan an appointed look as she ignored her old friend. "Donna and I were talking about old memories, baby, nothing else."

"Oh." Aidan's face fell. He had had a shred of hope that his mother had confessed what they live through with his father; that she had found a way out to all there suffering and hurt. But like always, his mother was not about to put his life at risk. He knew that too well, even when she thought he had no clue.

"- -Hey, no fair!" Appearing in the most awkward of moments, but a blessing nonetheless at the exact moment to a specific brunette, Kelso stormed into the kitchen. "We said no hiding upstairs!"

Eric rolled his eyes. "We told you to count to a thousand."

"Yeah, I got confused." Kelso admitted in embarrassment, but shook the feeling off quickly. "But you all cheated, _I _win."

Clearing her throat, Jackie pulled on a smile and interfering with her ex's discussion of playground rules. "Where's Fez? His food is ready."

"He went to get Red." Kelso replied instantly, looking around the kitchen for the plate. "Aw, man, _eggs_? Come on, Jackie, I'm hungry too. Selfish."

But before that could go nowhere, Betsy Kelso run up towards the adults. "Hey! We said no hiding upstairs!"

Hyde and Eric rolled their eyes - like father like daughter.

"That's what I told them." Michael agreed with his daughter, frowning the same way the little girl was; with her hands on her hips. "Cheaters, all of them, Bets."

"…Long live the King." Forman sighed, already annoyed with the conversation.

Smirking as Kelso gaped, Hyde knelt slightly down at the brunette girl, smiling at her as she knitted her eyebrows in confusion. "That doesn't make you a princess, Betsy, alright? It makes you the daughter of a dumbass."

Kelso gaped again, giving a dramatic gasp. "Hey, I have evolved!"

And just in the moment Jackie was going to laugh, a sincere feeling floating upward and wanting to expand out, that sensation was put on pause when the sliding-door of the kitchen open. Someone coming in that wasn't the people that was expected, someone that was too early in arrival.

"Daddy!" Aidan shouted happily, turning and looking at the same person his mother had. Except he was smiling, truly full of joy by the man's presence while his mother went pale. "Daddy, you're early!"

Everyone turned in the sudden flash little Aidan became, watching him race towards his father and embrace him like he hadn't seen him for years. They stared right through the lack of resemblance between the two, none of them really aware that nothing tied the two except for the only redhead in the room.

However, no one felt a sudden twinge of hatred for the guy that the boy was hugging, an unknown and unjust feeling, than Hyde. It was like he was in need to march over there and tear the kid away from the arms of his father, almost like his skin crawled by the sight.

"You didn't give your mother any trouble, did you?" Andrew asked the little boy, picking him up and holding him to the side of his hip like he was a toddler. "On your best behavior for the people that invited you to their home?"

Aidan smiled, nodding cheerfully. "Yes, daddy, honest."

Donna felt like throwing up then and there, guilt flooding into her by the interaction the two were having. So unnatural now. She turned to her best friend, staring as blankly as she could; but knew that she could see through the mask.

Jackie inhaled once, cleared her throat, and tried her hardest not to return Donna's gaze. "Aidan, get off your father, baby, he must be really tired." She walked towards her husband and son, extending her hand out to help the boy down but looked at the man instead. "How did it go?"

And much to Aidan's displeasure, his father gently put him on his feet. "Excellent, you should've seen it, Jacqueline, they were really impressed." He grabbed her hand, reeling her towards him softly. And right when she was close, where he could smell her scent of lavender perfectly, he leaned down and pressed a tender kiss to her lips. "How was your day?"

"- -Betsy, why don't you and Aidan go back to the basement and watch T.V. while the adults talk for a while?" Cutting across from whatever answer Jackie was going to give, Donna smiled hesitantly at Kelso's daughter. "Go on, there's some chips and candy Fez has hidden in the storage room."

"_Score_!" Betsy and Aidan shouted together, the both reaching for each other's hands and rushing down the kitchen's hallway.

Jackie felt a little warm inside; Aidan was happy.

An mirroring his wife's expression, oddly, Andrew grinned at the retreating figure of his son. "He seems to be enjoying himself, doesn't he?" He asked causally, throwing an arm around the brunette's shoulder and squeezing playfully. "God knows the boy needs friends and some distractions. He is too quiet for his own good."

Jackie moved a step to her left, trying to move away from his hold. "Well, he wouldn't be so quiet if you would let him out of the house." And there she went, letting things slip that shouldn't have. Ruining whatever moment of peace she could have had later on. It was like her old self, her old fighting, reluctant side was trying to come out and bare her claws.

"For his own good." Andrew responded, his tone strained. "You know how important it is to keep Aidan safe, right, Jacqueline?" His green-eyes almost boiled into the darkest shade of green. "Remember what happened last time he got _too_…comfortable?"

Jackie looked down at the tiled-floor instantly, her heart hurting with the memory that that sparked.

How could she ever forget something like that? She felt like dying that day, more than every other day. Andrew had almost broken Aidan's ribcage in a wave of fury and too much alcohol. He had almost fractured the boy to a permanent damage because Andrew had been afraid that Aidan was going to tell his little friend's parents what happened at home.

And he couldn't risk that, so he damned the boy into a lonely childhood.

"..Yeah, I r-remember." She squeaked, knowing that his reminder was in fact a warning. A threat. She had indeed let her mouth say too much, and he was going to teach her a lesson soon about the importance of thinking before speaking. And that could come as a beating for her or Aidan, it was always random choice for him. Jackie never knew who it was going to be, but in the end, she was always the one left on the floor in a pile of bruises.

After all, what mother would not jump in front of a bullet for her son?

"Do you mean he got bullied?" Interrupting her torturing memories, Donna made a shrill sound as the feet of the chair she was pulling out from the table skidded the floor. "He's such a great kid, always quiet, who would mess with him?"

"…People can be cruel." Jackie murmured, swallowing a knot.

"I remember when I used to get bullied." Kelso sighed, jumping up on the kitchen counter and swinging his legs. "It wasn't 'til I beat the crap out of them that they started leaving me alone." He nodded to himself. "Yeah, sometimes you gotta show them who is boss. Boys can be freaking mean until you kick their ass."

Erick raised his brow. "_Boys_?" He repeated. "What boys, Kelso? Big Ronda was the one who bullied you, and that's because you kept pulling her pants down. And you didn't 'beat the crap out of them', you just called her fat, kicked sand at her face, and ran for it."

"She was huge!" Kelso glared, defending himself automatically. "And don't act like she didn't kick your ass either, Forman, you ate her Twinkie once!"

"You two still got beat by a girl, so shut the hell up. It's not really helping your reps, you pansies." Hyde snapped, rolling his eyes and turning to the married couple. "I'm not trying to pry or anything, but if he's getting bullied you should place him in Karate classes or something." (Well, that was odd.)

Giving Hyde a disbelieving glance, because she couldn't digest the fact that he cared for Aidan, Jackie shook her head. "He's not being bullied, Hyde."

"Then why did you say he was?"

"It's nothing to worry about." Andrew spoke to the curly-haired man, not giving his wife a chance to respond. "Not anymore at least."

He looked down at his wife, a grin appearing on his face that confused her instantly. "What does that mean?" She asked in a whisper. (In her head, she crossed her fingers. Hoping for divorce.)

"Well, like I said before, the meeting in Milwaukee went great. They said I had great potential to successfully help develop their firm."

She cleared her throat, looking up at her husband like nothing was wrong. "But, babe, you already work in their firm."

"Obviously, Jacqueline." Andrew rolled his eyes. "But you know very well that the law-firm in Chicago is generated for major cooperation benefits. It's nothing exactly legal or much to negotiate with, others tend to drop the case after they know we are defending the accused."

"What a prestigious law-system." Eric mumbled wittily, no one really paying attention to him.

And like no one had removed attention from him, Andrew spoke up with pride. "They offered me a position as Senior Partner in their firm in California, and I accepted."

Everyone aside from the married couple exchanged looks, all of them lingering a little longer at Hyde's face as it totally froze.

"California?" The brunette repeated, her eyes opening wide. "But - But that's so far away from everything, Andrew." Her heart rate started picking up. " What about our home? Your parents? You know how much they love Aidan, Andrew, your father won't- -"

"That's none of my concern, Jacqueline." Andrew cut across his wife's obvious panic. "They have their own life, and we have ours. Besides, moving to California would be beneficial for all of us. We can expand the way we have been hoping since we got married, and we can save whatever is left of my relationship with my father. Distance is what we need from him and his wife, Jacqueline, you know that."

Jackie breathed in, her knees shaking from all the dread going into her blood. "…What about my job?" She asked in a whisper, looking up at him with dazed eyes. "I have so many responsibilities at the station, so many tasks that I haven't completed."

"Jacqueline, I've told you many times that there wasn't a need for you to work. But like always, you undermine whatever it is that I tell you." Andrew did not look sympathetic for his wife. "Besides, your time in the television industry is wearing itself out now."

"…But, it's always been my dream."

"Time to upgrade your dreams, then." He snapped, already angry due to every contradiction his wife was making. It was like she never just went with it, like she loved to pick a fight with him whenever he was happy. He just could not understand why she couldn't nod her head and agree with him, just like any wife should when the head of the family has made a decision.

"But- -"

"But _nothing_." He let go of her shoulder, his glare penetrating her eyes more intently. "You had your dream, Jacqueline, and it's time for mine. I made sacrifices for you. Or did you think I wanted to put my career on hold to accommodate you and your child?"

It was like nobody else was in the kitchen with them, like everything aside from them had vanished. There was no breathing, no noise, no sound suggesting that someone else was there. It was just Jackie and Andrew, both staring at each other. Their problems leaking out like they were in the privacy of their home, like they were back in their master bedroom and the curtains were shut tight; no audience witnessing their arguments. The manner they behaved with one another; an insight to their married-life.

"We - We just can't pick up and start all over in California, Andrew." Jackie murmured urgently. "Our son has school, I have my job. Andrew, I want to stay in Chicago."

The man sighed. "I don't care, Jacqueline."

For some reason, for some lurching pull that should have suggested for her to zip it and just agree with her husband, Jackie felt the urge to put her foot down. "You didn't even bother to consult me about this first? How could you have agreed without thinking to ask me?"

And now she was done for it.

Gripping her shoulders as his anger flared up then and there, Andrew pushed his petite wife down on a chair. Her body instantly going rigid from his touch, a gasp passing through her lips at the abrupt action. "I've made the decision, Jacqueline, there will be no more arguing about this. You need to understand, for once in our relationship, that this is important for _me_." He gave her a squeeze. "Now, once we get back to Chicago, you have a week to announce that you're quitting, pull Aidan out of school, and we are moving to California, understood?"

Jackie made no movement, she was frozen.

Donna looked at the scene before her, struck silent by the refrigerator, shock spreading throughout her body. That man had a temper, she could see that now past his handsomely alluring features. He was deadly, poisonous. She could see that, and now the question was: _what the hell? _

Kelso and Fez stared at their old friend, at their once love with that same surprise that was in the redhead's eyes. Except theirs held a glitter of anger, of confusion. They knew Jackie's temper better than anyone else, because they were constantly pissing her off before, and now they didn't know who was that brunette being silenced by her husband.

Sudden surprise was not a stranger to everyone else in the room, especially not to what Hyde was feeling at the moment. He gritted his teeth, his fist clenched. This was none of his business, and he sure liked to say how much she hated that midget woman, but even he had moral values on how to respect a woman.

Eric grabbed Hyde's t-shirt; holding him back as he looked ready to step forward.

"…Jacqueline?" There was noise in that kitchen once more. "Did you understand me?"

The woman nodded almost immediately. "Y-Yes. I understand."

"Good." Andrew replied, satisfied with her lack of fight now. "We're leaving now, I called the hotel to check us out in a few hours before I arrived." He pulled her up brusquely from the chair, spotting unshed tears in her eyes and not paying attention to them. " Now, go get Aidan."

But just as the brunette was thrown towards the direction their son had skipped away, the swinging-door that led from the living room swung open. Two men walking in - one elderly man in particularly catching the last moment clearly. "Kelso- -" And everyone turned to him, more surprise filling the room. "Make yourself useful and go get the boy, I haven't introduced myself yet."

"Sure." Michael agreed without a retort or complaint, thinking that the little brisk walk there and back would get rid of the tick he had to punch Jackie's husband's face. That was the thing about being Jackie's first boyfriend, he guessed, was that you never, _ever_, wanted to see her hurt. You never wanted another guy to hurt her, not after what Kelso had done. He admitted that she deserved better, and he vowed to protect her whenever and as much as he could. (And if he got a lovely naked surprise in the process, then hooray for him.)

Jackie managed to find oxygen as she heard Michael's footsteps start. "…Mister Forman." She breathed out, clearing her throat at all the peering eyes. "Um, my husband, Andrew Taylor."

"Great finally meeting you, Mister Forman." Andrew extended his hand to the old man, containing that flame of anger. "Jacqueline has told me so much about you."

Jackie let out a puff of air, almost trying to be a chuckle as she pulled on a smile. (It seemed like she wasn't the only one filled with lies.)

Red stared at the man's hand for a second, contemplating the idea of many things. But not wanting to be rude, not wanting to add fuel to the fire, even for his love of kicking ass, Red took it. "You're one lucky guy, Andrew, let me tell you. She's one great girl, you'll never find someone as special as the loud-one."

Hyde's blood boiled, Red could hear it.

"Mommy, Uncle Kelso said we were leaving- -" Running towards the adults, Kelso behind him, Aidan stopped in his tracks as he noticed the facial expressions on his parents. It happened again, they fought. This wasn't going to go somewhere pretty and filled with rainbows, he knew it.

"Say your goodbyes, Aidan." Andrew told his son firmly. "We're going home later on, you might not see them for a while."

_Or never again_, Jackie thought as Aidan's face fell to sadness. "I'll check in to see how Mrs. Forman's doing everyday, I promise." She muttered to Mister Forman, her eyes sparkling with tears once more. And these were nostalgic, heartbroken tears instead of fearful ones. "Mister Forman, I…I'm going to miss you."

The elder Forman man sighed, but found nothing to say, so he just gave her a simple nod. Hoping that she remembered he was terrible with emotions, but that he meant the next words he said to her. "I'll see you soon, Jackie."

She smiled lightly, and then turned to the others. "… It was good seeing you again."

Everyone else stared at her, Fez pushing his way past Red and looking like a puppy that had just been taken away from a juicy bone right on the second that Andrew pushed Jackie out of the sliding-door; not allowing her to say anything else. (Nor giving the others to say something to her.)

"…Someone tell Betsy it was nice meeting her for me." Aidan mumbled to the adults, a broken look on his pale face. "I had a lot of fun playing with someone."

Kelso looked at the others, no one moving to say something to the kid. Instead they all gave him sympathetic looks, worried gazes. He frowned at them, shoving Fez back as he still looked longingly out towards the glass door, and he knelt in front of Aidan. "Hey, I'm sorry, buddy." He said sincerely to Jackie's kid. "Promise that next time you come around I'll show you more pranks, we'll eat more of Fez's candy, and we'll get to see more of Point Place, alright?"

Aidan gave him a half smile.

Patting his shoulder, Kelso returned the same nothingness of a grin. "I really am sorry."

"It could be worse." Aidan said to him, shrugging a little. "But I'm used to it."

"- -Aidan." _Honk. _

The boy waved his small palm at all those looking at him. "Bye." He said miserably, walking towards the sliding-door with his head down as his father honked once more.

They watched the boy leave, every one of them submerging in a long silence. None of them moved, none of them spoke, and none of them even breathed until they heard the car pull out of the driveway; and the engine sound yards away.

"…It's clear." Fez informed in a small voice, placing a hand depressingly on the glass door.

"What the hell was that!" Hyde barked on the spot, pushing Eric and his hold away from him. "The way he yelled at her, man, what the hell? Since when does Jackie let some guy yell at her?"

Eric shrugged, not knowing what to say as his brother began pacing in anger. (Now there was no denying he cared for the Devil.)

"- -Donna?"

Snapping the redhead away from the trance she was in, she blinked her green eyes repeatedly at Mister Forman. Staring back at his demanding eyes, wanting an answer f something, she could already tell.

"You talked to the girl, right?" Red questioned as he pulled out a chair for himself. "She mentioned anything while you two 'reconnected'?"

Hyde nodded with the man, stepping forward to his friend. "Yeah, man, you and Jackie were talking. What did she tell you?"

Now all attention was on her, everyone carefully looking at her face as her heart banged inside her chest. There was just so much now, in her head and in her heart. She didn't know what to do, what to say, or how to keep her loyalty to all those that she loved. She had promised Jackie to take the secret to the grave, but how could she? Hyde had a right to know, a right to know that some other man was raising his child.

But he hated Jackie, right? Though he loved to say it. What were the chances that something would work between them? So he could see his kid and she could keep her marriage? Wouldn't Hyde just hate her more?

It was just too much now, she felt dizzy.

She glanced at Mister Forman, the latter giving her a solemn nod. Almost like he knew what was going to slip out of her mouth next, and that it would be alright.

"She - She just talked about her life." She murmured to everyone, but mainly to that curly-haired man that demanded more with his angered blue-eyes. "She couldn't be happier with her life. I…I'm sure this is just a little bump on the road."

Donna smiled slightly at Hyde - she was going to hell for this, that's for sure.


	14. Quit Lollygagging

**Chapter Fourteen:Quit Lollygagging **

He was leaning against the swinging-door, his dark-eyes watching a man stare blankly at the off television-screen.

He knew that maybe he shouldn't be there, standing around and invading the man's personal space, even if he was a good few feet away from him. He was never the most appropriate man, he knew that, nor he wasn't the guy who always said or did the right thing, but for some reason he couldn't let this one go.

There was just much more implicated in this little mess-of-a situation, in this moment of silence, than he would have liked. And, sure, it wasn't any of his business, nor did he like meddling in someone else's emotional-affairs unless it gave him something in return, but right now he figured it was something less selfish. Something more mature from his part.

It wasn't, even, that he cared necessarily for whatever it was that was going through the man's head, what made him walk away from the others, but Kelso supposes that whatever it was, it was something along the lines of what he was feeling at the moment - and that's some sort of guilt, he was sure of it.

A guilt he really couldn't put into words yet. But he continued to stand there, arms crossed, and watching Hyde from a distance. Nothing wanted to be said, all his words tucked away.

Hyde blinked once, twice, and made no noise. He stared at the screen - more like _through _it - and let his mind rush backwards. Rewinding back to a moment, he figures, could have changed everything.

It could have been so simple, he thinks to himself. He had known the outcome of his life back then, he knew what it was that he wanted, he knew he could've changed the situation he was in in that exact moment. He knew that the hole that seemed permanently punctured in his chest would not have been there, nor those nasty sticky feelings in his chest, if he would have been quicker. If he would have just gone with his first instinct instead of questioning everything he had.

Because he had the answers to everything, though it took him many tries, but he had them.

'_- -Okay, okay.' A drunken Hyde came out from behind of the building department, marching forward to where his friends were. Stumbling a little as he joined them in the circle, each with a beer of their own. 'I've finally made up my mind, about Jackie.' He slurred._

_Eric and Kelso gave him an amused expression, waiting for him to continue._

'_I'm gonna marry her!' He ignored their evident mock, holding on to his beer bottle as he wobbled again. 'I'm - I'm gonna be Mrs. Jackie Hyde!'_

_Fez shut his mouth, trying to contain his laugh exactly like Charlie had been doing, the newest member of the gang. One by one they turned to Eric, the person who knew Hyde better than anyone else._

_Leaning against a set of beer boxes, Eric looked a little uncertain at his adoptive-brother. "Hmm, maybe one more beer.'_

_Hyde dropped the empty bottle, pointing a finger at Eric and nodding. "Could be." And he walked back towards the end of the department._

_After five minutes, the curly-haired man came back. Still wobbling, but never letting go of his new bottle of beer. "How dare she give me an ultimatum! This is my life she is messing with!' Hyde shouted at this slightly-less drunk friends. 'She can go to hell - I will see her in hell!'_

_Again, everyone turned to Forman, waiting for him to speak. _

_Nodding patiently at Hyde, Eric said, 'Maybe one more.'_

_Hyde looked at his bottle then back at Eric, nodding too; figuring he was right. "Yeah, one more couldn't hurt.' _

He blinked again, clearing his throat to himself, and the memory changed in his head.

_Returning home after an adventure of ripping off Charlie for free beer from his father's Beer Miller, and accomplishing to get the boy really drunk for the first time in his lonely life, Eric and Hyde sat together on the bright-yellow couch in their living room. Sobering up by the seconds that passed._

'_Well - -' Looking at his watch once and readjusting his sunglasses, Hyde spoke after a moment of silence between him and his brother. 'It's almost noon, I gotta go talk to Jackie, man.'_

'_What are you going to tell her?' Eric asked._

_Hyde shrugged, looking indifferently and calm. 'I don't know, man. I'm thinking of letting the El Camino make the final decision.' He pointed his arms to the right, demonstrating his point to Forman. 'If it pulls to the right, _marriage_.' He turned his arms to the opposite side. 'Pulls to the left, _nude-y bar_.'_

_At the peevish grin on Hyde's face, Eric rolled his eyes. 'So, you haven't decided?'_

_Still smiling, turning a little to give Eric a stare, he shook his head with amusement and pulled himself off the couch. 'No, I've decided.' He flashed him his smile once more and headed towards the door, a ring in his pocket._

So here was the thing, here was what was eating him up inside at the moment: could he have avoided this? Did he let go of something that could have made his life completely different than what it was now? Could he have been someone else than the always-drunk, always-high, conspiracy-freak, angry Steven Hyde everyone was so used to?

Was he the one who changed the outcome of everything? Because it was his fault, somewhere along his still-there brain cells he knows that he was the one that pushed her away. He was the one who made her leave the first time, he was the one who made her jump back into Kelso's arms.

His fault.

But as soon as that thought had entered his head, Hyde shook it out aggressively. Grunting to himself at that. It was not his fault, he was sure of it. It was evident that he loved Jackie, she was after all the first girl he ever said those three words to, and she _knew _him. She knew how he was; how hard it was for him to express his feelings but she still pushed and pushed for an answer. Hadn't it been obviously obvious that he was not going to know how to respond to that type of pressure?

This was _her _fault, he changed his mind. Everything was the way it was meant to be because Jackie was a bossy-midget, and her marital-problems were none of his concern.

"I'm worried about her- -"Kelso finally took the liberty to speak, seeing as Hyde had let out a curse and slumped himself on the couch. "I know I talk a lot of crap, man, but I really am."

The curly-haired man grunted, crossing his arms. "Whatever, man." He began tapping his foot. "I'm sure whatever is going on, she deserves it. I mean, think about it, man. With a chick like that, we should be worried about the husband."

Kelso frowned instantly, he too crossed his arms as he leaned angrier against the swinging-door. "Well, Hyde- -" He spoke in a disgusted tone, almost scoffing at his friend. "It might be because I am a father, and that automatically makes me more attuned to these things, but did you not hear what the kid said?"

" '_Attuned'_." Hyde snorted, tapping his leg faster. (Secretly though, he gave Kelso points for that. It seemed he had been reading that Dictionary Brooke gave him long ago.)

"Am I the only one who is concerned for the kid?" Kelso asked loudly, staring at Hyde with a slightly irritated face. "He practically said this is a daily thing- -"

"And that's none of my business, man." Hyde interrupted Kelso, flashing him a glare of his own behind his aviators. "And it shouldn't be none of yours either, Kelso. The boy has a dad, and it's not you." He tapped, tapped, tapped faster as his anger grew more intensely. "Why don't you go be one, man, and go find your little midget who probably ate everything Fez has hidden down there."

Shaking his head, Kelso said a "Whatever," and turned away from him. Passing through the swinging-door with his own anger.

"- -Shit." And noticing that as he had swung the door, he hit Eric and Fez on the nose, Michael just rolled his eyes at them. (No one was ever going to be the super-cool spy he was. _Amateurs_.)

"Dumbasses." Red said clearly, flipping a page of the newspaper he hadn't read thoroughly in the morning.

Eric rubbed his nose, blinking a little wildly as it stung and tingled. "- -Maybe Hyde's right, I think we're giving this situation too much thought." He said to the others. "Maybe whatever is going on is really none of our business, and they should handle it however a married-couple does. I mean, it's _Jackie _here, she's no saint. "

"Shut it." Mister Forman snapped from his seat, still reading the paper but everyone could see the glitter of his anger shining in his blue-eyes. "You don't know anything about the girl's life, so shut it. Whatever is going on in her marriage, it's her business and she doesn't want any of you idiots meddling."

Kelso snorted. "I say we kick the guy's ass. I mean, Jackie's like a sister, right? If Laurie was being yelled at by some guy we would've done something about it."

Fez and Eric exchanged a glance, not really agreeing with that. "If any guy could make Laurie into a gutless-robot, I'd buy him a beer." Forman said sincerely, earning a frown from his father that he ignored.

"…True." Kelso replied after a moment of thinking that through. "Okay, what if it would have been Donna? Like if Casey was yelling at her and grabbing her like that, we would've done something about it!"

"Seriously?" Donna asked curiously, speaking for the first time in a few minutes.

"Duh, Donna." Kelso rolled his eyes. Sure, he was a douche himself, but even still, Kelso knew how to respect a lady. (…Well, physically…In a non-abusive way, he means.) "Even if he was my brother, I'd say he deserved an ass-kicking."

Getting annoyed by the subject of Casey Kelso, that muscular jackass, Eric spoke again to get rid of the subject. "Look, whatever. The point here is, we better stay away from Hyde for a while, alright? And that means no 'sudden' mentions of the devil, no sighing about it, no thinking about it, and if she calls, no pretending it's for him just to see what happens."

Both Fez and Kelso groaned. (There went Michael's attempt of revenge for Hyde being a douche, and Fez's attempt to make a burn.)

"He is not gonna be a happy camper for a while." Eric told his two friends after they hesitantly nodded in agreement. "Do not risk an ass-kicking."

Donna stumbled a little backwards, her mind attempting to run somewhere far and away from the current scene she was in. There was just too many emotions and thoughts penetrating her body and head at the moment, she almost felt frozen. Like she was in this state of not being able to do crap; not being to turn left or right.

In one hand, she couldn't believe that she was withholding the truth from Hyde. A truth that could turn everything around, everything that was surely circling in his head because of all of this. Donna liked to tease Hyde about his feelings for Jackie, everyone did, but she wasn't unaware that the reason for his hostility when the brunette had come back was more complex than the 'I hate her' he kept chanting.

She had a ticket, a clear way to make Hyde happy, she knew that. She could give him some sort of purpose, a direction, that point that he had always been missing. She knew that if she told him she could make him find a purpose again, she could make him turn his life around; a life that he had been throwing away all this time. He had a kid with a woman she was positive he was still in love with, that had to count for something, right?

….But even if she would do that, even if she would go there, revealing that secret would be disastrous. There was no even denying that. She would be risking everything Jackie held most dear, everything that she had gained all this time that she had been away from Point Place. And Donna wasn't sure if she could do that to her friend, she had an entire life already built away from them. A husband, a son, a home that would all vanish if she would tell Hyde the truth. (Which would gain Jackie an extreme dosage of resentment and more powerful hatred from Hyde's part; he would not forgive her secret.)

Donna let out an exhausted breath. This was obviously too complicated, there was no wonder why she felt stuck in a rut. And as she moved her neck in a circular motion, trying to crack away that pressure, the redhead caught Mister Forman eyeing her; the only one noticing her little moment of turmoil.

She took a step forward, something glazing over her eyes as she cleared her throat. "…You three should go check on Betsy."

"- -Why do I have to go?"

"She's fine- -"

"- -Okay."

At all three responses from the guys, Donna turned a glare towards them. "Go." She snapped at them, a decision already made in her head, "_Now_!"

"Run, run!" Fez shouted dramatically, pushing Kelso away as he headed down the hall.

"The redheaded monster exists!" Kelso added, following hurriedly after his best friend.

But of course, always the lingerer, Eric eyed his girlfriend. "…Are you on your period again, Donna?"

"Just go." She hissed in response, aiming a shove at his back so he would disappear already.

And as his son hesitantly went towards the basement, Red Forman cocked an eyebrow at the redhead as she took a moment to mumble something to herself, playing with her fingers before she could even turn to face him.

"…Just say it…Straight out…Best way…" Donna mumbled to herself, peeping herself.

Folding his newspaper, Mister Forman frowned at her. "What's this about, Donna?" He asked her directly, already annoyed with the time she was wasting. (His especially.)

Donna exhaled and then quickly inhaled again, making her lungs absorb every bit of oxygen she was giving them. "…Have you ever, you know, thought about…being a grandfather?"

Red frowned even more. "You're not pregnant, are you?" So annoyed, so irritated, so angered already. "How can that boy manage to knock you up when his mother's in a coma!"

"Mister Forman, relax! I'm not pregnant!" Donna almost shouted at the man, halting him from getting up the chair and heading towards the basement to kill his son.

"Of course you're not." Red said to her, that anger wiped away from his face as he folded his arms. "Now, tell me what's _really _going on." And at the look of utter confusion on the redhead's face, Red rolled his eyes. "This is about the Loud-one, I'm aware, Donna. Now tell me before I leave you standing there looking like a dumbass."

Trying not to focus too much on that, Donna pulled out a chair for herself; her hands shaking as she felt like she was going to plunge into freezing waters. "…When we went to the hospital, I walked over to Mrs. Forman's room while you guys waited, and well….The door was halfway open, and I…I heard Jackie crying from inside. She kept mumbling things to Mrs. Forman, I really couldn't hear much of it, but end the end…."She took a moment to inhale again. "….I heard her tell Mrs. Forman that…that Aidan wasn't her husband's."

One.

Two.

Three.

Mister Forman sighed heavily, shaking his balding-head to himself as he kept his arms crossed. "I would say that I'm surprised, but I really am not." He confessed.

The redhead raised her eyebrow. "…Why not?"

"There's something about that boy." He replied as clear as he could; which he thought summed it perfectly well.

"…I thought the same when I first saw him." She agreed silently, nodding once. "Anyway, after I heard that, I ran away from the room. I felt…_guilty _for listening in to something she obviously didn't want anyone to know…But you know, curiosity killed the cat, Mister Forman."

"Mhm."

Donna breathed again. "Well, when we got back I couldn't help myself…I began asking her all these things about her marriage, and then, I don't remember how we got into her telling me how desperately her husband wanted to be a father and - and I just got pissed, you know. I couldn't help it, I called her a liar and….and I told her of what I heard…."

Mister Forman rolled his eyes. (The kids these days with their heated-hormones and unstable emotions.) "Did she deny it?"

"It's Jackie, Mister Forman. Of course she denied it." Donna snorted slightly. " I thought she was going to whack me with the frying pan so I could forever hold my silence."

"She would have had the right."

Donna narrowed her eyes at the old man, annoyed of his preference for the brunette. "Anyway, Mister Forman," she repeated, "…I got her to tell me the truth. And…well…"

"Well what, Donna?" Red asked. "You ramble too much, get to the point."

"…Aidan…Aidan's your grandson, Mister Forman." Donna breathed, her insides hurting from the secret leaving her chest and her betrayal towards her once best friend. "…Hyde is the father of Jackie's son."

And almost like it was destiny, like the moment had called for it, the swinging-door that led from the living room burst open. A curly-haired man with aviator-glasses stood there, his eyes penetrating through the lenses to stare shockingly at the redhead. "…I'm what?"

Mister Forman and Donna turned towards the door; the latter feeling like ice was just rubbed against her back, guilt and self-rage piercing her skin from the man's sudden appearance. "…_Shit_." She cursed to herself, her heart beating a little quicker in fear.

"What did you say, Donna?" Hyde took careful steps towards the redhead as he took off his glasses, confusion seeping into every word he had just said.

And from his action, from staring for a second at Steven's eyes, Mister Forman recalled the exact shape and color that the little boy's had been. And that's when he knew - that's what had tipped him off about Aidan Taylor being weird, it was his eyes. They were the exact ones that Steven had on his scowling face at the moment, and there was no doubt anymore.

Aidan had inherited his father's eyes.

"Donna, man, I'm talking to you!" Hyde growled.

"I-I…No, it was nothing…" She shook her head, a larger wave of guilt flooding her. "You heard wrong, Hyde…"

"Cut the crap, Donna!" Hyde spoke even louder, his palms sweating from the overwhelming _something _filling him up.

But before Donna could explain, or wet herself from the look of horror she had on, Red stood from his chair; looking just as aggressive. "Steven, don't yell in my house." He told strictly towards his adoptive-son. "The only one with the privilege to do that is me. And, unless you are Red Forman, you lower your goddamn voice and shut up."

"- -What's with the yelling?" Eric came back up, running fast. He looked between his girlfriend and his brother, both staring at each other deeply; contrasting emotions on either face. Anger was taking over Hyde's and sorrow was invading Donna's. "…What's going on?"

Ignoring Forman, Hyde addressed Donna again with, "_Say it_."

"Hyde, look, it's not…"She swallowed the knot in her throat, turning to look at Mister Forman with tears in her eyes; waiting for him to tell her where to go from here.

This was definitely not the way Hyde was suppose to find out. And in matter of hours, after she had promise Jackie she was taking it to the grave, she told two people; one of them being the actual father.

"It's not…Hyde - _please._" She mumbled as her tears started rolling down her cheeks. If she thought she felt guilty before she was going to pop at any minute from it now. It was thick in her veins. She had hurt Jackie, and Aidan in the process.

"….What's going on?" Eric repeated, looking confused by his girlfriend's tears and his father's solemn expression.

"Donna," Hyde's voice was lower but still as harsh, "tell me…Please."

The redhead's bottom lip quivered, a rippling emotion emerging up from her chest as she started crying. (She wanted to tell the truth, but not like this.)

And at the hesitation from Donna's part, Red took a breath, grunted, but stood taller in his stance. "- -Jackie confessed to Donna that you're Aidan's biological father, Steven."

Silence.

Donna cried more tears, too much guilt still inside of her; suffocating her. (How could she do this?)

Eric pulled out a overly-dramatic surprised face, gasping slightly as he put a hand on his chest. (What? When had he missed that!)

"…That boy is yours, Steven. He is your son."

Hyde's heart had stopped beating, he could feel that hollow nothingness inside his chest. But instead of reacting the way they all expected him too, Hyde shook his head frantically. "How could she keep this from me!" He hissed dangerously, taking out his keys and darting towards the door.

* * *

**AN: DUN. DUN. DUN.**


	15. Man Down

**Chapter Fifteen: Man Down**

The sky was pitch-black. There were no stars, there were no clouds, there was nothing. It was like staring at a chalkboard, but the atmosphere felt dangerous.

A woman was staring up at the sky by herself, standing outside the balcony of her hotel-room; minding her own business and the silence when she spotted a car park hectically in the middle of the empty lot.

She was about to blink away, not really caring for that situation, but she managed to catch a glimpse of a very handsome man storm his way towards the passenger side of the car, ripping the door practically open and pulling out a woman with heated force.

Argument, no doubt, she thought to herself. Clucking her tongue as she figured the woman was probably off being a hussy and he caught her, or something along those lines. The stories were always there same. But as she was about to turn again, ready to mind her own business and not the marital argument about to happen with that couple, the back door of the car opened; a little boy stepping out with a great fear on his face.

The lady continued to watch, raising her eyebrow as the man made way towards the room, gripping the woman to him and the child following hurriedly.

"What the hell was that about, Jacqueline?" As soon as the door of room 415 was opened, a small brunette was tossed inside of it. Thrown in with force by a man with furious green-eyes and a small scared boy standing behind him. "- -Get inside, Aidan!"

"Y-Yes, d-dad." With a squeaky voice, the boy nodded rapidly and followed his mother inside the room.

The man looked around the outside of the hotel, scanning the area, and the woman looking from the balcony took a step back into her dark room, daring not to look at the ferociousness on the man's face. (She should have just minded her business, really.)

The door was shut loudly.

Jackie was sitting on the edge of the tacky flowered sheets of the hotel bed, her son standing in front of her, his young face scared senseless but he stood perfectly still; like a solider ready for the blow coming from the enemy line as he watched his father strut his way aggressively towards them.

Andrew came into full light. "Do you think, Jacqueline, that because we are in this shitty town, that was once your home, that that gives you the right - the damn _privilege _to forget what I taught you?"

Jackie remained silent, heart thumping.

"Does it!" Andrew barked in command.

She closed her eyes. "No."

"And as my wife what did I teach you, Jacqueline?" He spoke to her like she was some sort of dog, almost like if he was waiting for her to roll over.

"…Respect," She began with a shaking voice, obedient like a school-girl. "and never question your choices."

But that's how life had been by Andrew's side as soon as he got his claws into her skin, she knew that. She was always the obedient one, she had to be after all. That's what he wanted. He wanted her to listen and obey every one of his commands.

He was her owner, she knew that too, and learned to accept it. It was degrading, that was true, every time she answered and every time she did what he ordered. It was like a piece of her self-respect would die, just like her soul every day she kept being with him.

But one day - one day it was certain that things would go too far, and along with her self-respect and soul, she'd die too.

Meanwhile, however, she took it all; she never quit, how could she? She had a son to live for, or at the very least _try _to live for. Because that's what it seemed most of the time, that she _tried _to keep breathing. Because as long as she was alive, even if she was an inch away from death, she would protect Aidan with every breath in her body, even if it would be the last.

…She'd never close her eyes and welcome death if Aidan was not safe; and so she tried.

"Exactly." Andrew hissed, interrupting her thoughts. "So why did you think that would change in front of your friends?" He took another two steps closer to her, shoving Aidan to the side.

A jolt of new fear raced up the little boy's body, watching with horrified eyes as his father gripped her mother's waves and pulled her to him. "- -Daddy, no!"

Andrew ignored the boy. "Answer me, Jacqueline."

She was holding her tears back, the fact that Aidan's voice was heard made her feel vulnerable, she didn't want him present, but he had nowhere to hide. "…I d-don't want to go to California."

Andrew narrowed his eyes. "Why not?" He allowed her a more detailed response.

But she couldn't really answer that and be honest, could she?

She couldn't just openly enhance the abuser's flame of fury - not if she didn't tell him that she was scared, terrified, and that was her real reason. She couldn't tell him that if they moved to California all her hope would be gone, that the last remains of faith would disappear and she would have to surrender to him. Because in Chicago , at least, she had a lifeline; one or two ways to remain alive and protect her son.

Andrew's father was the reason for the latter, because he was always protecting Aidan whenever he could. He would interfere because he knew for a fact that his son had a grave problem, he knew what Jackie and his grandchild suffered through. After all, he knew that Andrew's problem was genetic.

Mister Taylor, sweet, old man, used to physically abuse Andrew's mother for so long, for too many years. He had a problem, he knew that, but before it was too late he looked for help, he wanted to save his marriage, he wanted to spare his son and wife the pain of his rages. He didn't want to be a monster, but it had been too late after all. Too late to save his marriage, too late to save his son.

He knew that his previous anger now ran through his son's veins, that he too was a monster, but one without a stop. And so ashamed that he gave to that to Andrew, there was always a shining happiness glittering in his eyes for Aidan, because that boy didn't have their fury, because fate had made sure Jackie didn't give birth to another generation of abusers.

And California would take any chance to ensure Aidan's survival, it would erase the hope that her father-in-law would rescue her son and protect him. Because they were doomed if they went; no one would know them, no one would try to help.

"…Your parents are old." She whispered in a low voice, barely audible to hear. "They need Aidan around….I don't want them to miss their grandson growing up."

"…I-I don't wanna leave Grandma Sara." Aidan whispered in the background.

"Quiet, Aidan!" Andrew shouted, instantly ticked off. "This is between your mother and I!"

Jackie stared into her husband's dark eyes. "He doesn't want to leave, Andrew. _Please_…We can't do this to Aidan, he loves your parents so much."

Before she could expect it, before she could even see it coming, Andrew slapped her across the face; silencing her. "Don't speak unless spoken to, Jacqueline!"

"It's not her fault!" Aidan shouted, tears running down his face as his heart banged. It had been instant, so quick that his brain did not even have time to analyze it. He didn't even think about knowing what was right and what was wrong, he had been taught all his life to remain silent, but he couldn't. Not anymore.

Andrew turned away from his wife. "What?" He growled at his five year-old son.

Aidan took a small step forward, his little legs shaking. "…Y-You heard me. It's not…It's not mommy's fault. I don't want to go to California!" Aidan was tired, that was the best way to describe it. His mind just couldn't take it anymore - he didn't know where he was getting the strength, but he was done.

Maybe it had been his mother's old friends. The image of her getting smacked contradicting the previous memory of those people so happy and thrilled to have his mother around; showing him that there was people who loved and cared for her. Maybe that's where he was finding his strength, because there was hope.

Because here, in Point Place, his mother had a family; it held the essence of everything she used to be. The person that one day he hopes he could meet.

Andrew gave a laugh that sounded like a snort, humor on his face. "Listen to the boy, Jacqueline." He chuckled oddly again. "The little bastard is trying to object on what I always wanted."

"Aidan's not a bastard- -" She managed to bite back, a small trace of anger in her blood. And now he looked at her, his green-eyes gleaming in her direction. "…Oh, but he is, my love." He patted her cheek as he continued to laugh. "He is the very definition of it- -" And then there was another smack.

"Stop it!" Aidan shouted.

Jackie's eyes watered from the hit, and Andrew ignored the boy's demand again. "There is no more say in this, do you understand me, Jacqueline?" He told her. "We will leave, alright. Because there is no damn way that I am going to let you and your son ruin this for me.

"California is the maximum achievement I could accomplish, and I have it. I have worked hard to be able to qualify for a position in the law firm there, and I am not giving that up."

Jackie shook her head. "There are many firms in Chicago with great- -"

"What else do you want from me, Jacqueline!" Andrew picked up the brunette by her hair, his fingernails sinking into the tender flesh of her skull. "I have given you everything!" His face was red with anger. "You owe me your life, Jacqueline, don't forget it!"

Jackie tried to tug at his hold but he was a lot stronger than her.

"Because of me you watched your bastard grow! You owe me that debt, Jacqueline!"

And then something snapped inside of her - almost like venom his body radiated fled into the pores of her head where he was cutting her. Like that feeling that encouraged Aidan to answer back, Jacqueline dug her own nails into her husband's arm. "You put me in the situation!" For the very first time in years, Jacqueline Burkhart yelled. "I don't owe you anything!"

Flinching slightly, Andrew shouted, "Shut up!" His fist colliding with her mouth.

She was getting out of line of what he considered being allowed. No wife of his will ever raise her voice to him, or dare hurt him. He was the superior one; he was the one in the right. Nothing else matter unless it came from him. His word was law.

"No!" She didn't bother to wipe away the blood dripping from her torn lip, not moved; it didn't hurt. "You knew all along what my situation was! I never lied to you! You were the one who wanted me, who wanted to be a part of my life!"

'_Here, I brought you some water, Jacqueline- -' The sun was setting already, she could see it even over the high buildings taking over the Chicago street._

_She turned around, her itchy jumpsuit accumulating the heat she had been collecting over the day as she cleaned office per office in the law-firm. '…Thanks.' She said politely to the man that had just stepped into her work place, pushing aside the bucket with a mop that she was about to grab; replacing it with the cup. 'You didn't have to do this, Andrew.'_

_At the little laugh she gave, the man in the suit smiled as he watched her drain the cup from its liquid. 'I figured you'd be tired, you took two shifts today, after all.'_

_Jackie sighed, swallowing the last chug of water in her mouth. 'Have to,' she responded, exhaling, 'Rent's not going to pay itself. Nor the hospital visit I took last week.' _

_Andrew scowled a little as she wiped her forehead. 'You have been overworking yourself, Jacqueline, it was just a matter of time until you ended up at the hospital. You're too small to be overloading yourself.'_

'_It's fine.'_

'_It's not.' Andrew cut across her instantly, still frowning as he crossed his arms. '…You're pregnant, Jacqueline, you have to be careful.'_

_The petite brunette rolled her eyes, crossing her arms too. 'Yeah, I've noticed, Andrew. But I would really appreciate if you can keep quiet about it, I can't really afford to lose my job at the moment.'_

'_Who cares.' He snorted, walking closer to her; and when he reached, he grabbed her slender arms carefully. 'Quit, Jacqueline, _please_.' He spoke so softly, so gently, that he didn't even know how he managed it. ''I'll take care of you, I promise. I make enough money to support the…three of us.'_

_Jackie blinked, looking down towards the bucket of dirty water. (Something she would have never gotten near before because it was poor-people work. But now she was one.) 'Andrew, I can't.' She said to him in a murmur. 'This is not your problem, this is mine and someone elses.'_

'_Someone who doesn't want to make it his!' Andrew snapped at her, scaring her a little. 'I'm not asking you to love me, Jacqueline, all I'm asking is for a chance….An opportunity for you to forget everything that happened in Wisconsin and start a new life…with me.'_

_Tears filled up the brunette's eyes, her heart hurting because like always he made sense. This was her problem, no one elses. She was alone. _

'…_I'll be there to take care of you, Jacqueline - for both of you.' He took a step back, outstretching his hand towards her; his emerald eyes piercing hers like daggers as he waited._

_It was this or nothing; it was now or never. Take a leap of faith or stay in misery and poverty; bring a child to the world with a loving father-figure or without a father at all. It was take help and forget her pride or suffer and possibly die a woman filled with bride._

_She sighed, swallowing as she looked at Andrew. '…_Okay_.'_

_And she took his hand, letting hi lead her down a path that would take a turn straight to hell._

"This all happened because of you!" Jackie retorted, noticing how his eyes were glazing over. "Remember it, Andrew! Remember your no for an answer that you never let me give you!"

Because he had to remember, he had to think back and noticed that if anyone was holding him back, it was himself. She had never lied to him about anything, she told him the truth from the first day she met him. But he didn't care, he claimed time and time again. He wanted her, he loved her, he cared for her. So for months he tried his hardest, being so sweet and understanding, giving her a shoulder to lean on when she cried for nights because of the love that beat in her chest; for the product she had created with that man that was now forming inside of her.

But clever Andrew Taylor knew how to play his cards well, an expert at the game he was creating along the process; he knew how to get Jacqueline to break. He waited until she was crumpled, starving and practically almost living in her car after her landlord threatened to kick her out of that shabby apartment, so vulnerable until she had no more resorts. He was like an angel fallen from grace; brought to her for salvation. To give a chance to the baby growing and forming inside of her, to live.

She so foolishly had thought it was love, but clearly she had mistaken. Love and Gratitude were two different things that she hadn't known to tell apart then, a confusion that would cost her so much.

"- -You said you loved me!" He shouted at her, snapping out of his trance, throwing his fist towards her face again.

"Stop it!" Aidan shouted. "Stop it!"

"You're one ungrateful little bitch, Jacqueline!" Andrew tossed his small wife to the floor, jumping on top of her. "I gave you everything!" His fist hit her left eye. "I loved you when no one else did!" His pale knuckles landed roughly on her nose. "They didn't love you, they never did! He doesn't want you back!"

There was a pause, a second he allowed to look at her face; an astonishment crossing her fast-bruising expression.

"Don't you think I didn't see that hatred that radiated from him!" His slender fingers went around Jacqueline's throat. "You will never be good enough for them!"

"Mommy!" Aidan cried, panic running into his system so he ran towards her direction. "Leave her alone!" Aidan pulled on his father's shirt. "You're hurting her!"

Andrew sat up from on top of Jacqueline. "Didn't I tell you to shut up!" Removing one arm from Jacqueline's neck, he slammed it against the side of the boy's face.

And like another surge of strength, of will, the brunette managed to choke out a, "No, don't touch him!"

"I hate you!" Little Aidan shouted from the floor; a few tears running down his cheeks. "I hope you die!" He screamed at his father.

Andrew jumped from his wife to his son in a swift movement, pushing down the boy's body to the floor. "Just like your mother," Andrew hissed as he punched the boy in the face, "you're just as ungrateful as she is! After _I _protected you! I made sure you were born, you bastard!" His fist flew around Aidan's body. Punching him as hard as he could, not caring how delicate the boys' bones were. "I took care of you even when you weren't mine!"

Jacqueline stood above them, fury and rage swimming in her eyes as she shouted, "_Not my son_!" She held up a lamp she snaked from the nightstand. "I told you never to touch him!" She smashed the lamp onto her husband's head.

"_Ugh_!" He growled as he rolled away from Aidan's body.

"Get up, Aidan!" Jacqueline fished for the car keys, taking the chance that Andrew was groaning on the floor. "- -Baby, let's go!" Loud sobs escape from Jacqueline as she noticed her baby boy's appearance, so heavily bruised, as she helped him up. His eyes were both rimmed with blue, blood trickled down his nose, his cheeks were puffy.

The damage had been done.

"M-Mom." Aidan he whimpered.

"It's okay, baby - It's okay!" She ran from the hotel room with her boy in her arms. With all her might and the strength she managed to conjure up, she ran. Ran as fast as she could. Her bones ached, her throat burned, her face felt aflame, but it didn't matter.

She was running for her freedom.

"_Jacqueline_!" She heard the loud roar.

And then Aidan cried, a shiver of fear running up his spine. "Mom!"

"It's going to be okay. It's over, Aidan." She jammed the keys into the ignition, shifted the stick into drive and began to pull away from the parking lot.

And as she drove hastily away from the hotel, she saw Andrew yank the keys away from a woman getting out of her car., jumping inside of it and about to start a chase. A chase that wouldn't last long because he knew her, he knew everything. He knew where she was going, her safe place that was nothing but.

She knew he would catch up to her. It was all a matter of time. She knew what was coming, and then it would all be over.

* * *

**AN: There you go, some suspense. (:**


	16. Turn It Off

**Chapter Sixteen: Turn It Off**

She had to act fast, or it was the end for all.

"Hyde!" Donna jumped from her chair, leaping her way towards the sliding-door and impeding the path of the infuriated man. "Don't - _Stop_! You're going to regret this later, please!"

Feeling Donna's hands crash against his chest, pushing him back from the door with ironically so much ease, Hyde had to repress the tingle in his arms to take another step forward and shove the redhead out the door. (By any means necessary, right?) "I'm going to regret it," he growled loudly, "how the hell am _I _going to regret it!"

Donna pushed again. "Listen to me, Hyde! Listen - I'm sorry you had to find out like this, but you need to stop!"

"Get out of my way, man." The curly-haired man hissed dangerously, still fighting that urge to shove her.

And almost like she could see that sparkle in his eyes to practically throw her out the glass door, Donna narrowed her green eyes and she added more pressure to her hands and shoved him three steps back; gaining a firm expression on her pale face now. (Alright, she was done playing nice.) "You know what, be mad. Go for it." She encouraged as she threw him the same glare. "Is it going to solve anything - _no_. Go ahead and barge over there and demand answers, but you're going to make everything worse - just like it's your habit."

The others in the background took in a breath. (Low blow, man, low blow.)

But being the man everyone was always saying he wasn't, simply because he wasn't built like one, Eric took a step forward towards his girlfriend and his best friend; interfering before things got out of hand. "Hyde, man, Donna's right. You just can't go over there and expect all your questions to be answered, because you're not gonna get them. She's married after all, what if that Andrew guy thinks the kid is his?"

And even though he was trying to assist the situation - well, assist Donna - Eric couldn't help but feel like all the words coming out his mouth were useless and stupid. If it were up to him, he'd grab the keys to the Vista Cruiser and would have drove Hyde himself to the freaking hotel. (Maybe even help break the door in with those X-Men moves he was practicing.)

But of course, like the whipped boy he was, the desperate look on Donna's face pulled the heartstrings in his chest and he stopped himself from running upstairs and grabbing the Wolverine costume he wore last year for Halloween.

"…If you go over there, man, you're gonna ruin her marriage." Eric mumbled.

Hyde turned to Eric, glaring at him. "Does it look like I give a crap about that little bi - -"

"Didn't I tell you not to yell in my house!" Red yelled louder than all the shouts that had been given in his kitchen prior; stepping in too with his parental-ness. "I don't care what the hell is going on at the moment, but you don't insult women in front of me. No matter what the situation is, got it? You respect Jackie."

Instant silence took over the kitchen, deep breathing heard - heaving noises that soon came to an end as they heard a _stomp, stomp, stomp_, coming towards them.

"Guys," Kelso came into the kitchen, "I have a five year-old and Fez trying to take a nap. Can you keep the racket down? All of you know how cranky Fez gets if he doesn't take his naps, and I'm not going to deal with that."

Erick sighed, shaking his head. "…Kelso, not now."

About to protest about how after he's the one who gets stuck with Fez-duty, Kelso stopped mid-way through his complaint as he noticed everyone's expressions: Donna looked guilty, with giant tears running down her pale cheeks; Hyde looked furious, with a hard glare on his face; and both Formans looked liked they were trying to ease the tension, annoyed and worried expressions on their faces.

Lifting an eyebrow, Kelso turn to Eric and mumbled, "…What's up?"

Choosing to answer because he knew that his idiot-of-a-friend wasn't going to let it go, Eric sighed again. "…Hyde found out that Aidan is his son. And apparently Jackie has been lying about a lot of things these past years."

Kelso gaped, jaw dropped as he stared at everyone in the room. "Dude, do you think she left knowing that she was pregnant?" (Damn, he never figured that Hyde would be the one who would end up knocking Jackie up. He means, he was the one sexing her up as much time as he could, and he spent as much more time trying to block Hyde and Jackie from doing the do. But this really was a shock - _wow_!)

"…So, are you all seriously telling me," Hyde's voice was still thick with anger, "that I have to hold back…knowing that I have a kid, but I can't say anything just so I could spare her the marriage with the guy that has been taking care of my son as his?" No one spoke, he continued. "Now I'm suppose to be compassionate to her?"

"Steven, it might not be the logical choice, I understand that." Red tried to calm his surrogate son. "I also understand that you are angry at the lie Jackie has created, but nothing gives you the right, no matter how Jackie messed up, to ruin that boy's family. " He walked towards the blue-eyed man. "You go there and confront her and you destroy everything that boy holds dear. He loves his mother, we can all see that."

"_But she lied to him_- -"Hyde cut in.

And Red ignored him. "Steven, would you make your own son hate his mother because of her mistakes?"

Hyde dropped his glare, crossing his arms to step away from Donna's still-there hold. He knew Mister Forman was right. Hell, even he thought about what his actions might do to the boy, but that didn't mean that that made it fair, right? "…Those were her mistakes, Red. Why do I have to be punished for them?"

Red squeezed Hyde's shoulder. "She is not all to blame, Steven." His eyes met the hooded blue of his son's as he let out a sigh. "Yes, it was horrible of her to never have told you the truth, but there had to be a reason why. Could you think of any, of why Jackie would leave Point Place without telling you she was carrying your child?"

Then a blur of a memory passed through Hyde's head; of him slamming a door behind him and walking away with anger and betrayal in his chest.

"…The hotel.." Hyde whispered.

He had left her alone in that hotel room four years ago. Never giving her a chance to explain, never wanting to hear anything that came out of her lips, even as she begged time and time again. He avoided her at great costs, not wanting to be in the same room with her, he was just done with her and her drama. And if there was a chance that he would see her, he would insult her, make her cry, and make her break down to the point that it seemed like she had no pride.

"…Did you know about this, Kelso?" Hyde turned to his friend. "You were there, man."

Kelso felt uneasy as everyone turned their gazes towards him, suddenly shy. "I told you, man, we never did anything, I swear it on Betsy's life."

"We know that Kelso," Erick rolled his eyes, "but did Jackie mention why she wanted you to stay?"

Michael tried to remember. But he was sure if Jackie would have confessed to him that she was pregnant with his best friend's baby he would have remembered it, he would have probably have used it as mercy for those times Hyde just jumped up and attacked him after the incident. (So, very rude, by the way.) But he saw the way Jackie and Hyde were torn apart after that night, and if he would have known Jackie was going to have a kid, he would have tried getting her and Hyde back together. It was the correct thing to do.

"…No. She just mentioned she was lonely." He shook his head at them.

Hyde looked away from Kelso to turn to his father-figure. "So what am I suppose to do, Mister Forman, watch her leave, _again_, with my kid?"

Red stood silent for a second, trying to come up with the correct words he would say next. He could see, behind the sunglasses, the pain his son was in. He looked so conflicted. Having a battle with himself in what was right and what he wanted. "You can hope that her telling Donna stroke a cord in her heart, and reveal the truth to you because of that." There was a loud screech from outside; with all the yelling, Red Forman wouldn't be surprised if the neighbors had called the police. "I don't want to seem like I'm defending her, Steven," he ignored the commotion for a moment, "but her reasons I'm sure she has."

Not wanting to, not wanting to give up like that, Hyde gave a stiff nod. "…I have a son." He whispered to Mister Forman, a knot in his throat as he said it.

Mister Forman was about to say something, another comment to console the obvious hurt in Steven's voice, but then something hit the kitchen door with a great impact. "- -_Help_!" The adults turned their heads towards the sliding-door as it burst open with a loud bang. "Help!"

With wide eyes, as she took a step away from the noise, Donna gaped. "Aidan?"

"Help," the little boy wheezed, "Please…_Help_." Tears ran down his bruised eyes, thick dark purple rims around the skin of his blue orbs; those tears running down his swollen red cheeks.

And almost instantly, without a question, without a single second of thought, Hyde pushed Red out of the way and launched himself to the boy. "Aidan, what happened to you?" He gripped the boy's shoulders, panic racing inside of him. "What's wrong?"

Aidan continued to cry. "Help, please help!" He repeated, a bit frenzied.

"Aidan, where is your mom?" Red asked, his heart beating fast. "Where's Jackie?" He winced internally as he took another look at the boy; his appearance made him look like he had become the punching bag of a professional Boxer. (And whoever did this didn't have any mercy upon the small boy.)

"She's - She's outside! In the car!" He sobbed louder. "We escaped! Dad's coming! He was right behind us! Help Her!" Aidan screamed with so much desperation. "_Help her_!"

"Wait, Aidan what are you talking about?" Kelso, for once, asked the accurate question. The one everyone needed the answer to as they gaped at the boy with confusion in their frozen stances.

"Dad hurts mom," the little boy still cried, panic still in his heart, "He beats her whenever she makes him angry." He gripped Hyde's forearms. "You have to help her! She managed to hit him with a lamp when he was hitting me, but mom's weak! She's hurt! He was coming after us!"

And along with the men, Donna gasped; a hand over her heart as Red Forman pushed her aside. "W-What?" She asked through the thunderous steps booming that Red was taking on the staircase

"Help her!" The boy shrieked again. "She's outside! She told me to promise her I'd hide! But you have to help her!"

Hyde nodded, his heart banging in his chest, his fury against the brunette far gone but replaced for the scum she called her husband. "Donna, take care of him." Carefully, with no desire in his heart, he handed the sobbing boy to the redhead.

"D-Don't c-cry, A-Aidan." Donna whimpered along with her best friend's son. She watched terrified as the three men ran out the sliding-door and onto the street with no look back at her; leaving her in the middle of bruises and tears that belonged to the boy.

"- - Check the car, Kelso!" Hyde commanded in a roar as they stepped onto the Formans driveway.

There was a black Corvette badly parked on the cement. The doors, from the passenger and the driver side, both were wide open. The ignition still on.

"She's not in there, man!" Kelso shouted back. His heart thumping too loudly in his ears.

"The keys are still in there, Hyde!" Erick yelled at his brother from the driver-side of the car.

Tossing his sunglasses to the ground, stomping on them for some reason in his flash of anger, Hyde squinted as he tried to look far towards the dark street. Where the hell could she be? What the hell was going on? What was all of this about?

Question after question was digging its way into his brain, making him feel like the world was in a chaotic state.

And in the foulest way possible, a scream pierced the night; sending a chill down Hyde's body as one of his questions was answered.

It was her - it was Jackie.

"Over there!" Kelso yelled. "It came from over there - _she's over there_!" The three of them took off running towards the direction of the screams that were coming one after another.

Pinned to the cold, concrete floor of that Point Place street she used to cross in her youth years, Jackie was kept captive by a body that was pressed against hers. Her husband. He was there, sitting on her stomach and restraining her arms on top of her head with one hand as the other held a silver knife that gleamed in the moonlight.

"…I don't love you." Jackie spat with gritted teeth, tears rolling down her cheeks. "I never have."

Andrew pressed the flat part of the knife against her throat, a rage burning stronger than ever in his eyes. "Yes, you do," he hissed at her, "You will not leave me, Jacqueline."

The brunette stood silent, rigid as she tried not to breathe.

"Tell me," Andrew continued, this time lifting the knife and suspending it in the air, "tell me you love me!"

"…_No_." Her voice was low, strangely calm as she closed her eyes.

She knew that there was no use to fight anymore, no reason to keep her thoughts and comments to herself. This was it. She knew it. Her life mission was complete: her son was safe, Donna knew the truth. Dona knew her secret; it was over.

She could die now, she didn't have to fight it anymore.

"You're lying." Andrew snapped. "Filthy liar!"

But before she could repeat it, before she can tell him how much she actually loathed him, a fist collided with her face.

The burning on her lip from the hit made her whimper, she felt more blood drip down her chin.

"…Why do you make me do this to you?" He whispered harshly. "Do you like seeing me mad?"

Jackie opened her eyes, spitting blood out. "…Because I don't love you." Her voice was low and filled with venom. "I hate you."

And just as Andrew raised his fist again, about to strike, a voice shouted, "Get away from her!" And the married couple looked up towards the sound of running footsteps, shoes slamming against the street floor in loud thumps.

Andrew looked to the man with the curly blonde hair, the blue eyes of the man glared into his green. It was his son's eyes. That same shape and color, they were the exact replica of Aidan's. He was the father of the boy he helped raise and who Andrew loathed for many years; the memory of the man he seemed to be competing with throughout his relationship with his wife

"This is why you came back, Jacqueline," Andrew turned back to his wife, laughing, "don't think I didn't recognize him, Jacqueline - the man who broke your heart! How stupid did you think I was!" He gripped her hair. "Did you think you could fool me! You came back to see him!"

The three men came to a stop, poised and careful, but the only one who held tears in his eyes, with the expression that he was about to break down and sob until his eyes popped out was Kelso. "- -Don't touch her!" He barked, watching with horror at the woman he was once in love with, at the woman he was going to love forever. He felt his heart ache and blood run cold at the sight of her, so mishandled and abused. It felt like a piece of him was destroyed then and there. He had come to care about Jackie that seeing her in such state made him feel like a failure, like a bad man, and a horrible friend.

He had promised her long ago that he'd protect her, that he would make up for every tear he made her shed, he had promised. But he had failed.

"Look…just calm down, okay?…Let Jackie go." Eric tried the peaceful way, the understand, negotiating way; flinching at the sight of Jackie and the knife in the air.

Andrew laughed manically again, a snort following after it. "She's coming with me. Keep the boy if you want, but she is mine."

"Are you insane!" Kelso bellowed, not containing himself. "She isn't yours, she belongs here with us! Let her go!"

Rolling his eyes, letting out a scoff, Andrew began to pull the brunette up by the roots of her waves. "Get up," he hissed at her, making her look at the three men of her childhood, "and look at them, Jacqueline. Tell them all about how you suffered, about how they broke you."

"We love her!" Michael shouted again as Erick nodding in agreement. He spotted Hyde staring at his ex girlfriend, his face was expressionless; a blank look on his pale face. But his eyes were different. His crystal eyes shone with worry, anger, and regret. He looked at the love of his life with immense depth. She looked ready to slip away. From everyone. From them. From her son. From Hyde.

"Love?" Andrew mocked. "_I love her_!" He shouted at them, pulling his wife closer to his body. "When I found her she was already crushed, and all of you did that to her. Everything that led to the way she is now is because of you…And the only reason why I discipline her is because she never forgot about any of you. I tried to help her," Andrew continued, "I tried giving her all that I could. A home, understanding and support, but that didn't make her love me…Nothing I did made her forget about any of you! Especially since she was carrying your bastard!" He pointed an accusing finger at Hyde.

Not letting the idea that Andrew had just shouted and revealed her secret to the three men, Jackie screeched, "My child is not a bastard!"

Her husband ignored her. "I tried to get rid of it." He confessed, watching with amusement as the three men raised their eyebrows in shock; anger and disgust written in their faces. "I thought that with the boy gone, she'd love me - she would have to. She would have no memory of any of you. She would, then, be truly mine. And I wouldn't have to share her with a boy that reminded her so much of the man she loved." Andrew placed the blade back against his wife's skin. "She thought of you…always. She would look into Aidan's eyes and begin to reminisce on the way things were before she found me. But she never understood…I was here to save her. No one would ever her love her like I could."

"Put the knife down, man." Hyde took a step towards them, smoothly and steady. His eyes moving back and forth to the man and his knife, careful with every breath of air he took. (Well, it was obvious the guy hated him, he needed to be smart about this.) "…You don't want to do anything stupid."

_She still loves me, _Hyde thought, _if she could never love her husband that meant she never forgot about me. 'Til this day she's still in love with me, man._

And right as Hyde took another small step, his breathing low, and his thoughts somewhere they shouldn't be, Jackie was the one who broke the moment of silence with a round of laughter. "…Let him do it. It's over." Tears continued falling from her eyes. "It's over."

"- -Mommy, no!" Aidan came sprinting down the vacant street with the redhead behind him, both racing towards them. "Daddy, please let my mommy go."

"Jackie!" Donna gasped, stopping suddenly as Eric grabbed her arm; forbidding her from continuing towards the brunette and her insane husband. "Oh, my god." She became hysterical.

"This was always the problem with out son, you see," Andrew spoke to his wife, almost casually. "If he wouldn't have the desire to blab to everyone about what happened at home, none of this would have happened."

Aidan shook his head frantically, also being held back by the redhead as he cried. "I never said anything, daddy, I promise."

Andrew pushed Jackie a step forward, pointing his knife now towards the direction of the boy. "Daddy hates liars, Aidan. You know that."

"Get near my son and I will kill you- -"Hyde snapped, reaching over and pulling Aidan away from Donna. "…He's mine."

Silence reigned in the air, and with a smirk, Andrew placed the tip of his silver knife on his wife's neck. "Well…" He trailed off, that smirk of his evil as he dug the tip of the knife down in a line, slicing Jackie with a thin line from her neck to her chest.

Jackie shut her eyes, teeth grinding together as she cringed from the stinging radiating of the slice Andrew had just made on her; tears falling automatically - but she didn't dare to scream.

"…The boy has a proper father now," he whispered to Jackie, removing the knife up from the flash, "now we can go, Jacqueline. You don't have to worry about him anymore. Isn't that what you wanted, after all?" He patted her head gently, leaning a centimeter down to kiss her. "He doesn't need you now, Jacqueline. You'll love California, I promise."

"Kill me first." Jacqueline spat.

"_No_!" Aidan and Hyde screamed together.

Andrew sliced her chest again in a swift angered movement, a horizontal cut with red liquid filling it. "Don't test me, Jacqueline. You know I wont hold back." He gripped her hair tighter, Aidan's cries invaded everyone's ears. "You cant be so strong all the time, love. Or do I need to remind you of the consequences- -"

Andrew Taylor's threat was cut short when the sound of a loud gunshot broke out into the night.

Everyone turned, eyes wide as they saw Red Forman marching down the street with a rifle pointed towards Jackie's husband. "Drop the knife and let the girl go." His voice was low but deadly; on his elderly face one could see the solider from his youth. Armed and ready to kill without hesitation, without an remorse or second thought.

A relief seemed to fill the air for a few seconds: Donna stopped her crying, Eric loosened his grasp on her arm, Kelso's eyes filled with a glitter of hope, Aidan wiped his tears away from his face, but Hyde remained solemn, with his hands firmly holding his son in his place.

Andrew looked all around him - there was no way out. He had to let his wife go. It was either be with her or die, and he wanted her, but was that worth him dying?

"…You will never forget me," Andrew bent towards her ear, whispering dangerously, "you will always remember me, Jacqueline. I will always own you. I will always be carved into your flesh, and stuck in your memories. And at night when you go to sleep…you'll see my face. The scars on your skin can fade away, but I've left a permanent mark in _here_- -" He jabbed the knife into her chest, feeling it rip through her layers of skin and sink deep inside.

And the rest that happened, as everyone saw the knife go into Jackie's chest, was in a blink of an eye. The hope in the air vanishing as quickly as it came, and a new uproar broke into the night of Point Place.

There was screams coming from Kelso and Eric, sobs filled with pain from Donna and Aidan, and then the cursing that Hyde roared as he leaped forward and caught the woman he loved in his arm as she fell; her blood oozing from her wound. A gunshot rang in the air as Red Forman pulled the trigger, watching after as his son crumpled to the floor with the mother of his child.

Then there was no more.

* * *

**AN: Dun. Dun. Dun. D U N!**

**Intense, right? Crazy, crazy.**

**Anyway, I apologize for any misspellings and grammatical errors but I'm done tiiiiiiiiiiiiired. And I wanted to update because Im not sure when I'll be able to next, I'm really busy and tiiiiiiired. Lol.**

** Thanks again for everything!(:**


	17. In The Wait

**Chapter Seventeen: In The Wait**

On a far corner of the waiting room of Point Place's general hospital, a blonde nurse was seen struggling with a little boy; arguing and huffing as she was trying to get him to sit on one of the metallic chairs. But the boy was defiant, stubborn - and the nurse was losing her patience as she struggled with him. (Who the hell bore this kid, anyway? He was the most hardheaded child she had ever stumbled upon at the hospital, and she was already a step away from just injecting him with a tranquilizer. As bad and unethical as that sounded.)

"Just let me go," Aidan Taylor smacked the arms trying to hold him still, "don't touch me!" He snapped, pushing Becky the nurse away from him. "Leave me alone."

"Can you just - -"

"_No_." Aidan retorted back so rudely. Something that went against all the manners his mother had taught him, something that she would have scolded him instantly for. Because, after all, he knew better than to raise his voice, knew better than to disrespect an adult the way he was doing - but in that moment, he really couldn't care less.

He just didn't want anyone near him, and no one was getting that. He was just a kid, a kid who wanted to cry; cry for his mother.

Turning from the boy with thick irritation, Becky narrowed her eyes at the few adults around her, "Can someone please hold the boy down?" (This would have been a lot easier if she would have been allowed to place the boy in a hospital room and given him something to calm him, but no, of course not. Just make her job harder - like she didn't have stacks of files to organize and update.) "I need to clean his cuts."

"You don't need to clean anything," Aidan responded before anyone else could say anything, "I've had them before, this isn't new for me."

And the silence that had been growing and growing as the people around the nurse and the boy grew even more; tension filling up the silence.

And being one of them, one of those completely quiet people, off on her own little world, her own little bubble, Donna's lip began to tremble as she processed his statement.

She just couldn't help but to hate the way Aidan spoke, the way he was saying all these things whenever the nurse told him to stay still. It was like every word that came out of his lips was like a dagger, rushing and stabbing them through the eardrums with incompetence, with failure and guilt. Because none of them had known, because none of them ever knew.

But beside that, beside the fact that she didn't know the torment that boy and his mother lived through, what hurt her the most was his voice. The way it was bitter and distant. Something that wasn't typical for a five year-old. She was beyond saddened that the boy had to go through all of this, go through domestic abuse in the hands of someone who wasn't even his father; because he wasn't his blood.

How could someone be so twisted? How can someone be able to attack a little boy - a _child_, for God's sake and not have mercy? How could he have not felt something, some compassion when he would beat the boy's little body, damage his little bones?

Donna inhaled the hospital air in, waiting for a few seconds before she took three shaky steps towards the nurse and the boy. "….Aidan, I know t-that you are upset," she mumbled to him; pushing the blonde nurse aside and kneeling beside him, "we all are. We know…we know how you must be feeling. We really do."

"No, you don't." Aidan snapped, his conscience feeling heavy. (He shouldn't have replied in that manner, but he was just so angry, so scared, so sad, so lonely.) "…I had to see my mommy like that for so long," he spoke again after a moment, so much softer. "It went on even before I was born, you know."

Donna's eyes began tearing up. Her emerald eyes glistening with heartbreaking tears mixed with guilt. "…I know, baby, I know." And she clutched one of Aidan's hands, trying to hold those tears and show him some strength.

Aidan looked down at her hand, at the shaking warmth, and he suddenly felt like hugging her. (She was his Aunt Donna, wasn't she? Could she not keep him safe and warm in the moments he felt so cold?)

"Miss Pinciotti, if you could please hold him," Becky huffed, interrupting the silent moment, "I really do need to clean him."

Then the moment was over.

Little Aidan took a step back, Donna's hand falling away from him. "I said no. I'm fine. Nothing hurts."

"…Just like his father," Eric Forman murmured to whoever was around to listen, a small smile on his face. "You are not going to convince him. He won't cooperate." He spoke a little louder towards the nurse; suddenly snapping his father, Fez, and the two Kelsos from their little drift far and away from where they were.

Becky frowned, crossing her arms. "It's important. If I don't clean him, his wounds can get infected." She scowled at the adults, sounding so professional. "Now, a bacteria in his blood is serious. Do you all need another reason to worry - _Who _is even responsible for this boy, anyway? He cant be here without a family member."

"I'm his grandfather." Red said in a low voice. "I'm his family."

From his own personal space, feet away from them, from those people he had just met not that long ago, Aidan glanced a secret glance at the older man.

Becky raised an eyebrow. "Mister Forman, you've been coming in and out of this hospital for almost a year now, I know that you don't have a grandson. " ( After all, if he did, Mrs. Forman would have chatted about her grandson nonstop - hence she would have known about him. How dumb did they think she was?) "I'm going to have to contact the Police."

Looking away from a bag of chips he was about to open - because worrying and sadness really did make him hungry, Fez' eyes widened. "You can't call the cops on the boy!"

"He needs protecting," Beck replied seriously, "he doesn't have anyone with him right now. Not to mention that his mother is - -"

"I'm his father." Out of the blue, like it was his nature to appear, Hyde entered through the doors of the waiting room; marching in and all eyes upon him. "The boy is mine. You don't need to call the Police. I'm his father, and I will take care of him."

And again, Aidan glanced a sneaky glance towards the group. Taking another step back and away from them as all eyes were on the curly-haired man that had just entered.

"That's _your _son?" Becky asked a little incredulous, raising an eyebrow. "Really?"

Hyde narrowed his blue eyes at the nurse, automatically annoyed. "Yes," He said to her firmly and blankly.

Then Becky opened her mouth, started saying something that was probably out of line, that was probably not allowed in her job and that was enclosed in a contract she must have taken of not getting involved in private matters, but Hyde wasn't necessarily paying attention. As he had blinked at her, his eyes had naturally zeroed in on the boy a few feet away.

He watched as Aidan said nothing, as nothing really crossed his face. The same way he had been looking since the ambulance had come, since they arrived at the hospital - or even rewinding back time when he had found out Hyde was his father. There was just _nothing _there, nothing in his eyes and nothing on his face, and then Hyde found himself partially irritated and partially amused. (He had heard the boy's mother tell him time and time again how annoying it was that he never expressed himself, and now it was apparent his son had inherited the trait.) And seeing as it wasn't phasing him, as he wasn't willing to speak of it, Donna had offered to talk to the boy for her friend, but all of them agreed it was no one's place to speak of the subject but Hyde's. So, they had all turned to him, looking at him like they were waiting for him to tell them when he was planning on doing it; when he was planning to fix the estranged relationship with his long-lost child. But no answer ever came, instead he had chosen to walk away.

He was, in no way at all, prepared to have that conversation with the boy. It was like meeting WB - his real father - all over again. And because none of them had gone through that awkward and tensed situation, because none of them had ever been revealed that the man they thought was their father, even if he was as low as scum; they didn't know how hard that was to deal with. Nothing was ever the way you thought it was after that moment. And Hyde understood that perfectly well, he didn't want his own son to feel it.

And through his thoughts, through the way they twisted and turned, he must have had missed something that came out of the nurse's lips because the cries of, "I want my mommy. I want my mommy," brought him back to the present.

Aidan was crying, giant tears rolling down his bruised cheeks as Donna reached for him; taking him and pressing him against her.

"Shhh, shhh." Donna tried to sound comforting and soothing, but her own hoarse voice and thick tears made it impossible.

And feeling like he was done playing something he wasn't, Aidan cried louder and let his Aunt Donna hug him tightly. "…I want my mommy. I want my mommy."

Michael, who had been cradling the sleepy figure of his daughter in his arms, looked away from the boy and remained even more silent. (The quietest he had ever been in his life, but no one seemed to notice.) He just stared down at his daughter, squeezing her a little tighter as he suddenly felt so blessed, suddenly feeling like he was the world's best father. (Or close to it at least.)

He might be many, many things, but Kelso loved his little girl. And to even begin to imagine that anyone could put her through as much damage and torture that someone had put Aidan in, it was enough to break his fatherly heart.

Feeling the same way - because only a father could feel the pain the boy was in - Red cleared his throat and looked up at Hyde from his seat. "What did they tell you, Steven?" He asked, ignoring that his surrogate-son's eyes were watering as the boy's cries echoed in their ears.

Hyde cleared his throat too, looking down at the floor instantly. "…They said they would send a doctor out to inform us soon," he muttered, "they just rushed her into the surgery room and said nothing else."

"What about the son of a bitch?" Fez asked from his seat, no longer hungry as his dark eyes were now spilling his own tears. Never hiding his emotions, showing how much it hurt and he cared.

Hyde said nothing for a second, now staring at his foreign friend as the latter's tear tracks were marked on his dark cheeks. Though he had teased him countless of times for it, he had to admit that he admired that of Fez. That he could show exactly how he was feeling, no matter when, and regardless. And in some twisted way, that made him more of a man than Hyde will ever be. (Though he would never, never - and he means, _never _- ever tell him that.)

Clearing his throat again, Hyde shrugged at Fez indifferently; not so phased or worried. "We'll be lucky if they don't manage to pull out the bullet."

"I can't believe you shot him, dad," Eric said to his father with a true surprised tone, but wasn't looking at him. Instead he watched the redhead intently, watched her hold on to the boy with all her might.

"And I can't believe he stabbed Jackie," Mister Forman retorted nastily, annoyed with the question his son had asked. "It all comes around, Eric. One way or another."

Blinking away the odd thoughts that were starting to form inside his head about the redhead - and not in the dirty manner - Eric raised his brow at his father. "It doesn't bother you that he might die?" He continued.

"He got shot on the shoulder," Hyde interjected, "not the head - though, you should have aimed for that, Red."

Mister Forman grunted in agreement, nodding once as he crossed his arms.

"…I hope he gets internal bleeding," Kelso added into the conversation with a muffled comment, careful not to wake Betsy, "and hopefully the bullet damages his tissues and muscles and that somehow it travels to his chest, causing a blood clog. That dillhole deserves to be dead."

Fez nodded in agreement with his best friend. "Usually I wouldn't wish death upon anyone, it's bad karma, but that son of bitch deserves to be worm food."

"The Police have been called," The nurse interrupted the conversation, suddenly making herself known again, "and once Mister Taylor is removed from his surgery, he will be placed in one of the hospital rooms and he will be under arrest her. Until he is better, that is, but officers will be outside of his room twenty-four hours."

Anger flashed on Red Forman's face quickly, his eyes glaring at the blonde woman. "You would think the system would be better in this country, but no. Of course not. Instead they are letting a criminal enjoy his stay at a hospital." He huffed. "America is going down the damned toilet."

And catching that, Aidan had stopped his crying, "he's going to jail?"

"Um, yes," Donna answered him gently, not really knowing if she should say something against Andrew, since the boy did know him as his father for so long. "What - erm - what he did to your mom…what he has been doing to the both of you is a crime, Aidan. You must never treat a woman like that, ever. So he is going to prison for it, sweetie."

"Oh." Aidan mumbled, thought for a few seconds, and then looked back up at his Aunt Donna. "…I love my mommy and my Grandma Sara, I would never hurt them. Or you, Aunt Donna," he gave her a weak smile, "promise."

Donna tightened her lips into a line, another few tears falling from her green eyes as she felt a strange, out of place tingle of happiness.

But like the worry and sadness that was in the air, like the lack of hope that runs in any hospital when things get bad - when things have been bad for so long, when it catches you and your faith off guard, a doctor entered the waiting room, calling out, "Family of Jacqueline Burkhart?"

All of them turned, one by one, even little Betsy Kelso awoke from her nap.

"Yes," Donna was the one to answer, picking Aidan up in her arms, "we're her family."

The doctor gave the redhead a skeptical expression.

"I'm her father," Mister Forman said, seeing the hesitation on the doctor's face; knowing Donna had made a dumbass mistake. (How believable was it that the brunette and the redhead were related? They were exact opposites.) "How is she, how's my daughter?"

The doctor looked at his clipboard, eyes scanning the page after nodding once at the old man. (The worry and concern deep on his expression can be no less of a father's, or someone beloved for the patient.) "We tried to extract the blade away from her chest as delicately as we could," he began, " but it was rather tricky. It was positioned right beside her heart." He flipped the page of his clipboard. "It touched some cords and arteries, causing a deal of internal bleeding. We tried to repair it as much as we could but…."

At the pause the man gave, Mister Forman took a firm step towards him. "But _what_?"

"It keeps breaking," The doctor replied in a gentle whisper. "The internal bleeding can't be contained in definite on its own, and the wound is too tender to accept the medical assistance. We tried three times, and all failed. However," he raised his voice before anyone could interrupt him, " this final time it _seems _to be holding itself together. But, I cannot stress the fact that nothing is yet sure. It might break again. And if that happens, it can cause her severe damage."

Red exchanged a look with the others silently. All of them glancing at each other as the doctor took a moment to look through his clipboard once more.

"Her skull was bashed in some places," the doctor lifted an x-ray scan, flashing it like it was show-and-tell, " we had to try and repair that as well. She was beaten badly, old wounds still tender and infected. And from all the head trauma, she might slip into a coma. In these cases, it all really depends on…it's all a matter of will from the victim, really."

Clutching on to her best friend's child more tightly than ever, trying to settle her worry, Donna raised an eyebrow at the man. "What do you mean, Doc?"

"Well…." The doctor paused again, feeling incredibly sympatric towards the huddled group that were there for his patient. "….She might decide she wants to slip away. We can try and keep her alive, but _she _might not want to cooperate. Her body could finally demand to stop." And that was true in so many cases like these, he had seen it too many times.

Domestically amused patients often gave up after things had gone too far, the body completely exhausted and unwillingly to repair itself.

It was tragic, yes, it was. The doctor could see how loved that Jacqueline Burkhart was. He can see it in every face that was looking at him, all of them stricken with fear and worry; all of their eyes brokenhearted. But sometimes, there was those occasions when the patient decided that no longer matter. They would just go out like if someone had disconnected the electricity.

He cleared his throat, asking for attention again before he departed. "…Medically, chances of her survival are slim," and it would be with the worse of news, " I am sorry," he turned to the old man now, more sympathy on his face, "her survival rate is low. She might not make it past the night."

And with that, the man closed his clipboard and headed towards the exit doors of the waiting room. Not wanting to be in that place longer than he should. (That's what always sucked about a doctor. The times you saved a life equaled the times you couldn't save one.)

Pressure flared in Hyde's eyes, in his chest, in his blood, in his skin - in all of him. He felt like he suddenly had taken a beating himself; or like the world was crashing down on his shoulders and his knees were shaking.

And not being able to contain what was going to come next, he stormed out of the waiting room. Trying to sound out the faint cries of his son was giving. He just needed to get away.

**X**

The beeping in Kitty Forman's room was at its usual pace.

Her heart monitor was detecting her heart rhythm, indicating that nothing had changed. She was in a perfect unconscious state, just as anyone in a coma should be.

She laid in her bed, secluded inside of the four cold marbled walls of the hospital room. Everything was the same, everything always was in that room for the past year and something. The tubes and machines around the room were still the same, obviously, her position on the hospital bed never changing. It was like holding a scene of a movie on pause, like time had stopped, like everything inside the room was nonexistent because nothing happened; no one saw or head anything. She was oblivious to the world outside of her hospital room.

But outside of her cage, outside of her imprisonment, outside were time ticked and flowed, the world for the ones she loved was becoming difficult, unbearable even. It was turning upside down after surprise, surprise, surprise, and tragedy.

And all because of the brunette that had left years ago.

Outside the hall where she lay, a curly-haired man approached.

He walked furiously up the tiled floor, stopping in front of the room - the room where his mother was.

He placed a hand on the door. (Not on the knob. No, not the knob.) He had no intentions of going inside. He didn't want to see another person he loved in a helpless state.

He just wanted to stand there, to _feel _his mother close, to know that she was there; but with no desire to see her so fragile. Because right now he needed strength. Strength that he lacked, strength that had suddenly vanished from him like the cold wind had blew it all away from him.

"….She's slipping away," he mumbled to the door, imagining that he was speaking to Mrs. Forman, "she is slipping away from her son - from _our _son." He flattened his palm on the front of the door. "She's going to leave me again," his lips parted, "and…and I can't see her do that again. I'm - I'm not that strong anymore."

Oh, for Zeppelin's glory, he felt so weak and ashamed. He felt like everything he wasn't; everything of the opposite he always held on to. He didn't know who he was, he didn't know what was going on inside of him. And in the moment he was alone, the presence of his mother on the other side, he didn't even know what was his name.

He was just so lost now.

"…I love her," he removed his glasses, "I never stopped - and that makes me the biggest asshole alive." He felt his throat form a knot, even more pressure building behind his eye sockets.

He waited for a moment, gathering his guilt.

"I wished her the worst in life every day that passed by when she wasn't with me." He spoke so truthfully, for the first time in so long; in forever. " I wanted - I even hoped that she would suffer, that she would be in pain, and that everything went bad for her….But not like this, not with my child watching." And like it was a moment for firsts, tears fell from Steven Hyde's blue eyes.

So alone, so secluded, so at fault.

He wanted everything to reverse itself. Now he wished things could turn around, that _he _would be the one enduring all that pain, all that suffering. He deserved it - who wishes all of that to someone they loved?

"…Don't let her die." He looked up to the ceiling, no longer speaking to his mother, but instead towards this powerful being, this holy person that lived so out of reach of people. That man that everyone called God; that person people spoke to when times were tough and faith was withering. "Don't let her die, _please_. I need her with me…I love her, man."

And he did, he did! God had to know that right? God had to see that in his eyes, God had to have known it for every day that passed in those five years Jackie was gone. He was almighty, wasn't he? He had to know the truth, _his _truth.

He banged his forehead against the door, now pretending and envisioning that he was crying on his mother's arms. Blubbering like a baby, earning some shame to his cool exterior he always fought to keep. "…Don't let her die."

Inside the room, on the other side of the door, nothing had changed. Everything was still the same, just like always. The air of depression and pained filled the room, like it always had, but this time there was something more. Something grand.

Kitty Forman laid in the white sheets, still as ever, but this time, and at that precise moment as the echoes and waves of Hyde's tears traveled into the room, her finger twitched.

As Steven Hyde placed his aviators on once more, collecting himself and heading back from where he came, deciding he needed to be there for his son, he left the outside of his mother's room without knowing what came.

Not aware the Kitty Forman laid on her bed with a tapping finger and eyes wide open.


	18. Still Breathing

**Chapter Eighteen: Still Breathing**

They were at the Formans place, just how they always were; secluded there because the nurses, and some of the visitors, were complaining about their arguments, their pacing, or their general nonsense as they waited for time to bring them something they were all hoping for.

He had been pissed when the security guards of the hospital had approached them, ordering them out like common hooligans, and Red Forman had threatened each and everyone of them — even Betsy Kelso for sleeping throughout the hours they were there — and demanded absolute silence until he said it was alright to speak again.

So that is why, all huddled together, nothing but the ticking clock inside the kitchen echoed around, and they continued to sit t in silence. Some looking at the tabletop sleepily, some looking at their shoes, and the rest not really looking at anything as they awaited for their punishment to end.

_Tick. Tick. Tick._

Kelso sighed. The air passing through the corner of his mouth blew some strands of his hair into the air; like a small wave of brown strands.

Red glared at him, looking away from his newspaper — Kelso stopped breathing.

_Tick. Tick. Tick._

Fez glared at the tabletop, his stomach growling and adding to the noise the clock was making. (How was this _his _fault? Why was he getting punished? He was just trying to get some snacks when that bitchy nurse, Becky, started telling him about the calories he was eating and how he was prone to diabetes because of his race. Was it any wonder why he started cursing at her in his native language and threw his beef jerky at her face?)

_Tick. Tick. Tick._

Eric's eyes were drooping, drooping, drooping. He had never found his eyelids to be so heavy, to hurt so much. He just wanted to climb up the stairs, go into his room, and snuggle into his Star Wars blankets and dream the day away about some Light Saber duel he could win with the right techniques. But _no_, he couldn't. Red had forbade him to sleep. (Was it his fault that doctor recognized him and charged him for the wheelchair Kelso and him had wrecked those days back?)

_Tick. Tick. Tick._

Hyde sat on his regular chair on the table, not really looking at anything; not really noticing anything.

_Tick. Tick. Tick._

All Donna could see was wavy, blondish hair. She had Aidan on her lap, never letting him out of her side and sight like it was her duty to be the boy's nanny. She clutched to him, not wanting to let go. A little afraid that he might crumple if she did, and then she would have more guilt than the sum she already owned.

_Tick. Tick. Tick._

Betsy laid on the floor of the kitchen, her back pressed against the tile as she entertained herself by counting the little dots at the ceiling.

_Tick. Tick. Tick._

Mister Forman looked back down at his newspaper — some hippies had been killed. (Humph.)

_Knock. Knock. Knock._

"— Oh, thank God!" Kelso groaned, hearing the knocking on the closed sliding-door once again. Being the first out of his seat and opening the door.

But before Mister Forman could protest, could even put his foot down, Kelso had already let whoever was at the door in. (Distraction was a distraction, and he was taking it!)

"Is this the Forman—"

"Grandpa!" At the entrance that the two people at the door had made, Aidan sprung away from Donna's lap as he recognized the man instantly; with his green eyes and dark hair. "Grandpa, you're here!"

"Aidan, my boy." The man gripped the child to him, squeezing him tightly as the woman that accompanied him kneeled down next to them too; trying to get a view of the kid.

The woman was a strawberry-blonde, small wrinkles on her face, and with warm brown eyes that glistened when the boy turned from the man and to her; crying. "Oh, hush, my child." The woman said to Aidan, her and the man both hugging him.

"M-my m-mom." Aidan cried, his little body vibrating from the sobs that were being stored in by the two adults.

Standing from his chair, Mister Forman cleared his throat roughly to get the attention of the intruders.

Blinking up, the man rose to his feet, handing the woman the boy and said, "Are you Mister Forman?"

Red frowned. "Who are _you_?"

"Adrian Taylor," The man extended his hand forward, "I'm Aidan's grandfather."

Still frowning, not bothering to shake the man's hand, Red crossed his arms. "I'm Red Forman, I'm Jackie's father. And I'm the man who shot your son."

Mister Taylor dropped his hand instantly, clearing his throat as all eyes were now looking at him. "My wife, Sara," the man said as the woman stood, Aidan tight on her hip.

"Thank you," the woman spoke before Red could even be polite and greet the woman in the way a gentleman should, "for taking care of Aidan while….while things get themselves sorted." Her brown eyes glistened even more.

"He's Jackie's son, it's not a bother."

"Why are you here?" Speaking for the first time, feeling a little ill-eased as that woman held onto her friends child, Donna narrowed her eyes at the Taylors. "You're not taking Aidan back with you, right? Because Jackie will wake up — _she will_."

Mrs. Taylor narrowed her eyes in return, squeezing her grandchild closer to her in a protective manner. "We're his guardians. We are here to be with him while his parents are unfit to do so."

Donna frowned. "His mother is in the hospital because of _your _son," her tone was filled with anger, her eyes with angry tears to go with it, "And seeing as Andrew Taylor is not the boy's father, you can't take him."

Mrs. Taylor look a little taken aback. "Andrew is my step-son," she corrected, almost like in that second she agreed with Donna's disgust, "and we are not taking Aidan."

Tension grew thick, and Mister Taylor cleared his throat gently. "My son's being transferred to a prison tomorrow afternoon," he explained, "and we are here to see his case be pleaded in front of the court. And because by law, Miss," he then frowned a little at the redhead, "Andrew is under Aidan's legal-father in his birth certificate, my wife and I are responsible for him meanwhile. We're the only family the boy has."

Silence.

Looking up from the tabletop, looking up to see Aidan hug the woman that claimed to be his grandmother, to the man that he had shouted for; that he looked momentarily happy for after everything had happened, Hyde narrowed his eyes. Feeling angry, feeling cheated, feeling deprived, and mocked. Those people were not the boy's family, they were usurpers.

"You're wrong," and then Hyde stood from his chair, standing tall with his blue eyes gleaming in the light of the kitchen as he used to them to glare at the man and his wife, "_we're _his family."

Adrian Taylor inspected the curly-haired man. And it didn't take two seconds to match the eyes on him and on his grandchild without knowing the parentage behind them. "You're the father, then."

Hyde gave a nod.

"And we're his family," Donna added as her friend stayed silent. "Do not get us the wrong way here but —"

"I missed you, Grandma Sara." But before the redhead could get out what she wanted, Aidan spoke with a sniffle as he pulled his head away from the woman's neck. "Da — He said mommy and I weren't gonna see you anymore."

The room filled once again with tension and silence, Mister and Mrs. Taylor sharing a long look as the boy hugged the woman tighter.

But before the feelings in the air could get heavier, or before Hyde could snap from the very apparent anger in his face, the phone inside the kitchen buzzed with a _ring, ring, ring._

"Hello," and again diving for the moment of distraction, hopping over his daughter, Kelso picked up the phone, "Forman residence." (How polite.)

"…Mommy taught him that," Betsy muttered proudly at the bewildered expression her Aunt Donna put on.

"Mister Forman, for you." Kelso outstretched the cord phone to the old man, waiting a few seconds.

Red snatched the phone from Kelso, but not before giving him a deadly-glare. "Red, here," he said, and then another round of silence happened.

Everyone watched — seeing as no one wanted to look at one another from the awkwardness of the situation — Mister Forman mutter an "mhm, mhm, mhm" repeatedly, until his eyes widened hugely; something crossing his old face that made him look like something they weren't used to.

"…T-Thank you." And then he hung up the phone with a shaky hand, his heart banging inside his chest as the others gaped at him with worry.

And seeing as that wasn't weird enough, Aidan turned in an angle from his Grandmother Sara and said, "Grandpa, what happened?"

And trying not to let that get to him too, Red looked up at the people he knew, excluding the intruders he were trying to snatch his grandchild. And with a shaky whisper he said, "it's Kitty," his heart went _bang_, "she woke up."

**X**

He can't remember the last time he felt this way — this happy, this thrilled, this overwhelmed, this indescribable.

It was a sort of feeling that tingled in his chest, but went deeper than that. It was something that radiated around him, like the composed atmosphere surrounding everything, but it was much more than that. It was this sensation that touched his skin, but penetrated through all the layers of skin he had. It was something that gripped his bones, but went further than to that to turn them into powder. It was the electrifying feel in his veins, in his blood cells, that seemed to ignite everything else inside him. It was that powerful, he knew; that feeling.

He frowned to himself for a moment through his swirl of thoughts. He _really _can't remember when it was the last time that he felt that way, but he knew he had. It was like replaying an old memory, like watching a movie he hadn't in years but still knew what the best parts of it were.

"Alright," the door opened and he stopped thinking, "you four can come in now. But nothing hectic or stressful. Give it some time, please."

As the doctor excused himself after his little explanation, Red Forman felt himself freeze as he felt something more powerful flash from the other side of that metallic door.

And as a moment of silence past, as a moment of _nothing _passed, Eric cleared his throat; taking charge for the first time in a long time. "Well, come on," he said to the others as he gave them a firm look, "let's not waste time here."

He took a hold of the knob of the door and turned it — Red felt even more paralyzed.

"Ready?" Donna leaned down, looking at the little boy she held hands with; giving him an encouraging smile.

Aidan nodded, and the two took a few steps towards Eric.

Red watched as the door opened and Eric marched into that room.

"_Hi_," he heard his son whisper, and a flare of anger lit up inside of him; his feet moving. (Was the idiot seriously going to waste precious time with small talk?)

And as that spark of anger ignited him to move his feet, allowed him to walk forward, he entered through the door and he swore he almost ran back and away from the hospital as he found these great, bright eyes staring at him for the first time in a long time.

She sat there, in the middle of her white-sheet hospital bed, small as ever, and with the grandest smile like she had the best day. An expression of anticipation, of excitement, of anxiety like she had been waiting for someone to talk to for hours.

She sat there, smiling at him; no longer just a photograph by his bedside, no longer just a flash of memory. It was the real deal, it was true — it was Kitty.

"And who is this?" She spoke so carelessly, so casual that she didn't notice Red shrink back against a wall as her eyes focused on the little boy by Donna's side. "Did you two start sponsoring those little orphan kids from the commercials on late-night TV?"

Eric laughed nervously, something taking over him as the first thing his mother said was a joke. A lame joke, but it was hers. Just like always.

He crossed his arms, tightened his lips into a line, but laughed as he could only look at her. He wanted to cry, he wanted to run and hug her. Grip her tight and tell her how much he loved her, how much he missed her, and how sorry he was that Africa came in between mother-and-son moments that they should have shared before all of this even happened; how he should have been there for her instead of chasing his dreams so selfishly.

"Eric," Kitty blinked up and away from Donna for a second, "you're not in Africa anymore, I expect you to cut that hair soon. We have rules here, alright."

Forman loosened his lips a little and laughed some more; nodding casually. "Yes, mom," he replied obediently, but felt his chest warm instantly by the normality that she was bringing. Almost like she wasn't registering that she had been in a coma for more than a few months, almost a lifetime.

"Oh," Kitty placed a hand on her chest, squinting a little as she turned back to Donna and the boy, "please don't tell me that's Laurie's kid." Her smile had withered and transformed into a worried expression.

"Um, no." Donna shook her red hair, laughing a little awkwardly. (How to tell the woman that her slut-of-a-daughter hasn't shown up since the day she fell into a coma?) "Actually, Mrs. Forman," she cleared her throat, trying to smile more wholeheartedly, "this is Aidan. He's Jackie's son."

Aidan blinked, and took a step back to hide behind Donna.

And just like in the old times, just like everything was in the place it was meant to, Kitty opened her eyes wide and shock took over her entire face; like juicy gossip had just entered the walls of the room and she was the first to find out. (Oh, how she had missed this type of entertainment.) "Jackie's back?" she mouthed, and then shook her head hectically, "and she has a son?"

Donna nodded. "And….Hyde's the father, Mrs. Forman."

Kitty's jaw dropped lower, and she practically tossed the sheets around her body off. "You liar," she breathed, squinting more to grasp every little aspect of the boy. "That boy…he's….Steven's, _really_?"

But it didn't take any more questioning or skepticism from her part when Donna ushered Aidan to take a step forward, to let the elder woman stare at him with her unknowing eyes, that Kitty noticed the eyes on the boy instantly.

Blue, glittering, shifty, round, narrowed — just like her surrogate son's.

Mrs. Forman smiled, leaning against her bed as she nodded in approval. "He's got a lot of Steven in him," she told the people in her room, " and a lot of Jackie too. I can see it."

And just as Aidan's little face started becoming sad, tears in those blue eyes of his, Red seemed to spark up again as he didn't want the melodrama of Jackie and her crazy husband ruining this moment. (He didn't know what news like that could do to the barely-awoken woman.) "Donna, why don't you take Aidan back outside. Mister Taylor will probably want to spend more time with him."

The redhead frowned at her boyfriend's father.

"Erm, yeah, sure." Eric spoke for Donna, knowing perfectly well that his girlfriend did not want Aidan associating with the Taylors; thinking that they were going to snatch him away and she would never see the boy again. "Mom, I'll…I'll be back, okay."

"No, you won't if you don't cut that hair, Eric Forman." Kitty added firmly, looking parental as the two adults pushed the boy out of the room instantly.

And then the door shut behind them, and Red found that awkwardness was taking a hold of the room now.

He cleared his throat, turning slowly to face the woman. "….So," he said with a puff, "erm…yeah."

"Where's Steven?" Mrs. Forman cut across Red's oddness. "Why isn't he here?"

And again, Mister Forman cleared his throat. (How to tell her that he refused to see her? That he refused to do anything as long as Jackie was in a path heading towards disaster in another hospital room not far from hers?) "He's with Jackie," he said — which wasn't a complete lie, "I'm sure he'll come in soon."

The woman nodded and fluffed the sheets around her, staring at the man with profound eyes.

There was so much in the air, so much that Red felt. It was like every particle of oxygen inside the room was filled with tiny words, with hints of feelings, with sparks of memory, with the echoes of his heart beating inside his chest so loudly.

He was never much of a word or expressing man, never knew what to say or what to do, and he felt like the world's crappiest man and husband alive. How can he not do or say anything at this point? For God's sake, his wife had just awoken from a long-term coma and all he could do was stand there like an idiot; stand there complete frozen and taken aback. Like if someone had thrust him in a room with a stranger and forced him to socialize. (He needed someone to come and kick his ass — maybe then he'd find a nerve to do something.)

But it was in that moment that he was beating himself up internally, that he was fiddling with the zipper of his jacket, that he was clearing his throat every two seconds, that he was avoiding the woman's eyes, did he realize that it wasn't because he didn't know what to say, it was because there was _nothing _to be said. He means, how can he put something so grand into words? How can he even begin to explain what he felt when he had gotten that phone call and that idiot doctor told him she had awaken, that she was up and alive?

"…._Red_."

He felt his heart bang louder, harder, and more painfully as he also realized that was the first time Kitty called his name. The first time that he didn't hear the echo of it from a dream when he was asleep and she was so far away from him.

This was real.

He looked up through his lashes, still fiddling with the zipper of his jacket as he cleared his throat. "…Yeah?" He responded in a mumble.

Kitty breathed, crossed her arms, and stared at him very concentrated. Nothing passing through her bright eyes but a gleam from the light in the room.

"I…erm," Red cleared his throat again, "you know…erm, that…yeah."

Kitty still stared solemnly, blinking once as she looked deep into her husband's blue eyes.

Mister Forman frowned. "Damn it, Kitty!" He retorted, not being able to take her casualness so lightly. "Stop looking at me like!"

And now, Mrs. Forman frowned too as she leaned closer to the headboard of the hospital bed. "Excuse me?"

"You know what I mean!" He retorted, taking an angry step towards her with a scowl on his face. "This is all your fault —"

"_My _fault—"

"Yes, your fault," he cut across her too, " and you know it. What the hell was I supposed to….You were gone….Months, Kitty, _months_! Years, even! How could you do that to me?"

Kitty crossed her arms, the IV connected to one of her veins pulling as she did so.

"You made me a promise, Kitty," Red whispered angrily, "you promised upon God and a church filled with people that you would not leave me."

The woman rolled her eyes. "Red, I didn't do it on purpose."

"I almost lost you, Kitty!" And then some tears spilled from his eyes and Red didn't even react to it. He didn't even hurry to brush them away, to rub away the tear tracks on his cheeks to remove the evidence that he was weak. "I…I don't know what my life was becoming without you, Kitty." He swallowed a knot, taking more steps towards her. "I-I wanted to….I wanted to die, Kitty."

Mrs. Forman's eyes glittered with more than a spec of the room's light; she had tears too. "I never left you, Red. I was always right here."

"You weren't," Mister Forman shook his balding head, "you weren't there, Kitty…And….and, hell, Kitty, it _hurt_. I just don't know how to be without you…I couldn't even look Eric in the eyes for months. I didn't get out of bed — I need you, damn it, so you need to get out of here already."

Kitty outstretched her hand towards her husband, laughing. That laugh that was just her own, that laugh that entered through your eardrums and you knew how to tell if it was phony or real — and Red knew it was another thing that was real at the moment too.

"I'm serious."

"I know you are," Kitty said, still smiling, "I bet Donna was in charge of meals, right?"

He nodded angrily. "I ate Pop Tarts for months, Kitty. It wasn't until the Loud-One came back that I actually got a hot, homemade cooked meal."

"You see, Red," she blinked a again, her smile stretching, "all of you still need me. I wasn't going anywhere."

Red rolled his eyes in irritation, squeezing her hand. "Who cares about those dumbasses, I've been the one suffering here."

And as she laughed once more, Red leaned down and kissed her gently. His world started exploding into different shades of colors, fireworks inside of the room. And that's when he knew that the overwhelming, indescribable feeling he had been feeling in the beginning was not pin-pointed because it never stopped happening. It only happened when Kitty was looking at him, when he had her around — because she was everything real that he had.

* * *

** AN: Tada!**

**Now, this chapter was NOT in the original story, but I felt like there was some need to add some Red/Kitty fluff in there. And also bring in the boy's "grandparents" in it. So I hope you like this sweet-ish chapter. Promise that the next one will...Well, you'll see. Haha. Also, I'm sorry for not updating earlier. I've had tons of school and work, and yeah. Its been hard. But hope you like.**

**Also, I would like to dedicated this chapter to all of you, but especially to **NANNYGIRL** whos' been wanting some R/K since I uploaded this. **

**(:**


	19. Of All the Tragedies

**Chapter Nineteen: Of All the Tragedies **

Aidan was confused — really, really confused.

"You know that I love you—"

"That _we _love you," a voice corrected as he was being held by his waist and made to look into sad brown eyes, "so, so much, Aidan."

Mister and Mrs. Taylor were kneeling beside the boy in the middle of the Formans driveway; allowed some privacy there since every other person seemed to be poking their heads into the kitchen when they tried to talk to the boy. (They were, if just a little forced, thankful for Mister Forman disciplining the young adults in his house, and allowed them to go outside for a few minutes.) They looked at him, so brokenhearted and in misery.

Their expressions made it no lie that this was the hardest thing they had to do, but it was a must.

"…I know," Aidan whispered to his grandmother Sara, nodding slowly, "and I love you too, grandma."

The woman smiled, but hurt spread across with it.

And again, Aidan felt confused. Why were they doing this — why were they talking to him like they were saying their last words to him? Why did they look at him like they were trying to grasp every little aspect of him, every little detail about him? Why did they look so hurt, so much more broken than the entire situation required? (Though, he wasn't sure if that was a good way to put it. His mom was in the hospital still, a week already, and their son had gone to jail for many years; as they told him.)

"I know that too, dear boy," Mrs. Taylor said, her voice thick as she squeezed his little waist.

Aidan blinked away from the woman, turning to look at his grandfather with those sadly confused eyes. "Do you hate me, grandpa?"

Mister Taylor looked a little taken aback. "Why would you say that?"

"Because….this is all my fault." Aidan looked down at the floor in shame.

"_Aidan_!" The man frowned, inching closer to him so he could grab on to the boy's skinny arms. "You listen to me here, boy," his tone made Aidan looked up instantly; after all, his grandfather never raised his voice, and when he did — it was always best to listen. "Nothing, and I mean _nothing_, alright, that happened in this place is your fault."

"But da— but he went to jail, grandpa." Aidan spoke again, looking too ashamed for a boy his age. "And jail's for bad people. Aunt Donna told me. And….and, I made him go there, grandpa."

His alleged grandfather narrowed his eyes, still frowning. "Andrew got what he deserved," and his tone expressed that he meant it, truly did, "he was responsible for how things happened, Aidan. This is not your fault."

"What he did, Aidan," Mrs. Taylor cut across, speaking softer and with more understanding, "is a terrible, terrible thing, my love. You don't ever….jail _is _for bad people, and Andrew is a bad person."

More shame, more regret, more _something _pressed into Aidan's shoulders as he nodded just to nod. "…Okay." And before there could be more silence his said, "I don't want you to leave, though."

Mrs. Taylor tried to smile again, but failed so miserably. "We don't want to leave you, baby," she reached forward and grabbed his cheek gently; a little pang of guilt and despair entering her system as her fingers covered the bruises and cuts that were fading in his skin.

And not being able to handle, not being able to keep looking at the boy that he had come to adore, to love like he was flesh and blood, Mister Taylor took in a deep breath. Somewhere inside of him, however, no matter what way he tried to see it, he knew this would probably be the last time he would get to see Aidan. (After all, there was no ignoring the demand and the fight the boy's _real _family were trying to do. They'd take Aidan from underneath their arms if they had to — and Mister Taylor knew that if it ever came to it, he would do the same to them.)

And legally knowing he could do it, he knew he mustn't. His son had already caused Jackie and Aidan too much pain.

"Sara, it's time to go," he cleared his throat, standing up straight, "we're going to miss the flight back, and we still need to pass through the hotel to get our things."

Mrs. Taylor looked up, her brown eyes looking pleading as she said, "but, Adrian," but that was as far as she got.

"Time, Sara, time." Was also all Mister Taylor said.

Nodding once, the blonde woman reeled her grandson into her, squeezing him. And soon, without a warning, due to all the tension and heartbreak in the air, they both began to cry.

"I love you, my dear boy, I love you."

"I l-love you t-too, grandma."

Not strong enough, Mister Taylor helped his wife up from her kneeling. Not wanting — not _bearing _to spend more time in the presence of the boy that had to turn into a memory. "Aidan," he said in a whisper, an arm around his wife's waist as the woman continued to cry, "one day, my boy, one day, okay?"

Less confusion as Aidan stared at the man carefully.

"Don't forget us," but somehow, Mister Taylor hoped he did, "and we'll miss you so much."

And before Aidan could say anything, Adrian and Sara Taylor darted past him; making their way hurriedly towards the end of the street where he couldn't see them anymore in their hurry; in their desperate to get away.

Looking away, tears in his eyes, Aidan saw through the glass sliding-door of the Formans kitchen. He saw his Aunt Donna and that curly-haired man with his always-constant aviators on staring at him, watching him.

And as he walked to them, sulking, Aidan was no longer confused — he knew that was goodbye forever.

**X**

Hyde sat — like usual — in one of the metallic chairs of the hospital's waiting room. He sat there, watching the clock tick by, feeling the seconds, the minutes pass by slowly. Each one feeling like a knife in his chest. He sat for two weeks in the same chair, time and time again with his mind racing away with memories and his faith slipping.

And it slipped, fast.

"Do you want anything, Hyde?" Blinking, the first time a little distracted, Hyde saw the blonde receptionist looking at him thoroughly. "You seem a bit uneasy," she pointed out, "_a lot _actually."

The curly-haired man rolled his perfect blue eyes. "Do I really?" He said in a sarcastic tone. "You would think sitting in this damned place for forty-eight hours straight would make me as chipper as a clam." He glared at the nurse. "Golly, I wonder what's up my ass!" He practically shouted.

Becky blinked at Hyde, a little stunned and scared. "Ugh, well, I….erm, I just…"she spluttered, not knowing what she said wrong. "I'll take that as a no, then." And for the first time in two years, Becky turned away from Hyde; wishing she didn't talk to him in the first place.

"— Will she be able to go home soon?" A small voice asked, entering from the entrance doors and pulling Hyde away from his instant anger with the hospital's receptionist.

"That's what we are hoping for, Aidan," Eric said, sticking by the boy's side as they accompanied his father. "The doctors said if she continues to respond as well as she is doing, she'll be good to go home soon." He smiled at the boy, his faith bubbling.

Hyde frowned at his brother.

At the precise moment, just like many days ago, he felt extremely jealous of Eric. (Not that he would admit it to anyone, you know. It was an achievement that he actually admitted it to himself, but Hyde wasn't as predictable as people thought.) He was jealous because of that smile of ease on Forman's face, jealous because that scrawny man held something that he wanted to feel too but couldn't. Some of it was faith, some of it was hope, and some of it was happiness.

And if the current situation wasn't terrible, he would have been ecstatic, he knew _that_, but nothing was happening. He was just jealous and stuck in a rut.

"Hey," Hyde said, moving his leg with a quick tick as he did. He tried to keep his eyes away from the Formans, not wanting to deal with their happy crap, so he only focused on his son. (He just really couldn't handle — didn't _want _to see — his father or brother's face and see the faith they had accumulated in the past days.)

Red Forman turned to his adoptive son. "Steven," the elder man narrowed his eyes, "she's been asking for you again." He said straightforwardly, not bothering to ease into it. (He was pissed, damn it, who gave a stinking hell.)

"Yeah, alright," he blinked, acting like he looked up at Red, "I'll see her later when I get the chance."

Red glared harder.

"How did it go?" Hyde asked the boy, still pretending like he didn't know Mister Forman was readying himself to kick him far up the ass.

"…Good," Aidan stared awkwardly at the man, trying to sound nice and polite. (Though it was as hard as Hyde's lying routine that he was always busy and whatnot.)

For the days he has spent, alongside the Formans, his Aunt Donna, Uncle Kelso and Fez, he still hasn't gotten used to the idea that all this time he had a different father. The idea that the man that caused so much pain to him wasn't even remotely related to him boggled him, and he was just too tired to be confused all the time now.

He just couldn't handle it when he started questioning life, at such a young age that even his Aunt Donna freaked out. But through that, he never stopped thinking and being puzzled. He did wonder why would life let him experience all of the abuse if his real dad was here, so close. Why would God place Andrew Taylor on his mother's path if the man wasn't his dad? "…Grandpa Forman says she looks a lot better," Aidan continued, clearing his throat; knowing he had to give the curly-haired man a chance.

Hyde swallowed. "That's…good."

Aidan nodded, still holding on to his Uncle Eric's hand. "She has a very big smile, I liked it," he said, "and when I told her, she said she loves me." And then he looked at the floor, looking ashamed or embarrassed. (Who knew with the kid nowadays.) "I'm not sure if I deserve it, though…"

Eric chuckled. "Of course you do, Aidan." He said happily to the boy. "You mean a lot to her."

Aidan smiled at the skinny man almost automatically, but turned to look at Hyde again. "Grandma Forman said she wanted to have me over for the summer," and now he shifted to sounding excited and blessed, even, "she said she would like to spend some time with me after she gets to go home."

And again, Hyde repeated a flat, "that's good."

His son nodded, still smiling like nothing that was currently going on — the bad things — mattered or existed. "She said I could go and visit anytime during the summer, it didn't matter when."

Red Forman groaned, a bit lightly for his nature, but frowned like it was accustomed. "Kitty hasn't been awake for a week and she already made plans with the boy." He was trying to sound irritated, but his bright eyes showed all his happiness without a beat. His wife was awake, and by the rate things were progressing, she would be sleeping by his side sooner than he imagined. (What was there to be annoyed about?)

"She's taken it upon herself to show Aidan everything about Point Place," Eric interjected, " because apparently Kelso had promised Aidan he would take him to see the sights, but the moron never remembered."

Red nodded, still trying to hold the false irritation. "And now your mother wants to make sure the boy doesn't leave with a bad impression of Wisconsin."

Without helping it, without knowing that he was going to do it, Hyde snorted almost aggressively and in dark mock. "I'm sure sight-seeing in Point Place will make up for the last few days." He stood from his chair angrily. "I bet a clear few of Mount Hump will make him forget his mother's in the hospital," he growled at his father. "Taking him to The Hub will really brighten up his life just enough so he doesn't remember his mother was stabbed in Point Place. Let's take him to the pools and pray he overlooks that his mother hasn't woken up from her comatose state!" His voice came out broken, and his eyes filled with tears and the space in the waiting room that they were taking filled up with the tension they were all starting to get too used to.

"….Hyde." Eric mumbled to his brother, seeing past his aviators and to his pain.

Mister Forman stood still, glaring at his curly-haired son; both having a stare-off. And with that anger, Red felt like kicking the man's ass. No one yells at Red Forman and gets away with it. Especially not one of his kids. (What was the point of being a parent if you didn't place fear in your child's life?)However, not replying with his usual 'foot in ass' threats — that took him so much to keep under control, Mister Forman did the next best thing.

He gripped his son's arms and pulled him to a strong, yet discomforted hug. Gripping him tightly, understanding that anger that lived in that curly-haired man.

"_Why wont she wake up_?" Steven Hyde cried into Red Forman's arms. Feeling weak and unlike himself, but he couldn't stop it even as he tried. He would have never, in no circumstances, be caught crying, and definitely not in someone's arms. He was better than that. Stronger. Manly. Tough. Zen.

He knew how to be vicious, damn it. Life had been a bitch growing up, there was no other choice than to toughen up and jump over the rocks life placed on his road. None of those moments— from the abandonment of his mother, to his heartbreak when Jackie left — had ever caused him to shed a tear.

He was made of stone, his sprit full of Zen and made of rock.

He was unbreakable.

Until now, of course.

"Mister Forman?" Interrupting the moment — thank John Lennon in the sky — allowing Hyde to pick his strength off the floor, the doctor that had done surgery on Jackie appeared.

Red pushed his son away and turned to the doctor. "What?" He asked in a angry tone. Mister Forman was tired of seeing Dr. Davis's face. Whenever the Doctor would appear he had nothing to divulge to him, nothing of use. He would just appear, with his clipboard for show or theatrics, and tell him that he regretted to say but his daughter hadn't made any alterations. There was no progress; nothing, nothing, nothing.

"She's awake— " But this time Doctor Davis contradicted his anger with a different comment than what he expected "You're allowed to see her," he said to the man, trying hard not to whisper, "it's a rather delicate situation, and in normal cases I wouldn't allow it, but seeing as…"He shook his head, not wanting to say it. "I'm going to allow you and your family to enter her room. You have five minutes, Mister Forman. That is all I could give you, five minutes."

**X**

"I just don't think it's fair!" Michael Kelso shouted annoyed in the silent hallway.

Fez glared at the handsome man. "Kelso, Betsy can't come in. Children aren't allowed. Besides, they only gave us a few minutes and we already were too many people." He tried to convince.

"Nah," Kelso shook his brown hair, "All of you just have something against my Betsy ever since the new kid arrived!"

Everyone frowned instantly.

"Listen, dumbass," Red Forman, supporting his newly-awakened wife by the shoulders, hissed at Kelso, "this is a very important matter, and if you don't stop your damn whining I'll put you in here and then I'll make sure Betsy has someone to visit! Now shut the hell up, and get out of the way!"

Kelso's light brown eyes popped open, fear automatic. "Yes, sir," he gulped, moving to the side and hiding behind his foreign friend.

Mrs. Forman laughed lightly, trying to disregard her annoyance — she just hated being helped up and about, her legs weren't broken. She knew she could do everything herself perfectly well, if she may say. Her husband and children needed to stop assuming she was fragile. She was perfectly fine.

After all, there is no time to feel weak and brittle when your family needs you. She assumed that is why her consciousness awoke; she needed to be the firmness that held her family together. It had been too long and it was time she glued her family back from the shattered stage it was in. And there was no one better for the job than her.

She had wasted years watching and scowling at Steven and his misery. She let everything go too far, she needed to be the one to fix things. That is why God made _her _the mother; the Protector.

"…Aidan," Hyde, who was standing behind his parents, holding on to his son, called the boy, "are you sure you wouldn't prefer staying in the waiting room with your cousin and Becky?"

Aidan glared, his blue eyes meeting his father. "_No_," he said determinedly, "I want to see my mommy. I don't want to be stuck with the lady, I don't like her."

Fez, watching the adorable father and son scene, nodded his head in agreement; a loud snort accompanying it. "I know what you mean, buddy," he waved his hand, "that lady's a bitch."

"Fez!" Donna, who was standing hand in hand with Eric next to him, hissed at the foreigner. "Would you minimize your cussing around the children?"

"Ay," Fez complained, "sorry." He lowered his head in shame. He was letting his foul American language get the best of him. (Damn them and their easy influence on his poor, innocent soul!)

Before any more talking — or shouts from Mister Forman emerged — Donna pushed the door open; not wanting to waste any more time. She needed to see Jackie and apologize, apologize for everything.

All this time, these two weeks and even before, Donna hadn't been able to live with herself knowing the state in which the brunette was in. She just felt this incredible feeling like she was the one to blame, like this was her fault. If she would have just been there for Jackie….if she could have said something other than laugh and pretend not to listen whenever Hyde would tear her apart — if she would've been a better friend, maybe Jackie would not be laying on her hospital bed.

The chattering had seized, and now they all stood inside of the room. Staring at the brunette strapped onto the bed, looking even smaller than when she was up and about in her heels. Her face was still swollen despite the few weeks that had past. She was still covered in purple bruises and red scratches, dried blood collected on her forehead and arms.

They all stood very still.

Eric stared down at the girl, wondering where everything went wrong.

_She used to be so strong_, he thought, _so full of life_. Where, from those old days to this precise moment, did life twist and destroy Jacqueline Burkhart? He couldn't believe someone would have the heart to hurt her, to want to destroy her. She was the evilest girl he had ever met, but she had a heart of gold. She was sinister and selfish, but when it mattered the most, she was always there for all of her friends; and that's what mattered the most.

"…Mommy?" Aidan whispered, pushing himself off his father and ending the silence. "Mommy?" He called once more.

Hyde held tighter.

"Let him go, Steven, " Mister Forman said in a thick voice, "let him go to his mother." He looked at his son, struggling to let his own son go. Red could tell he wanted to hold on to him and never let go. (After all, Aidan was real — the closest thing he had of Jackie's.)

Aidan's soft steps were heard on the tiled floor as he walked cautiously to his mother; to the person he most loved in the world that laid on the bed. "Mommy," Aidan took the brunette's small palm and smoothed the wounded skin, rubbing it with his thumb. "Mommy." He placed her palm on his cheek. The way she used to do it whenever he felt sad; the smallest gesture that filled his life with love and hope.

"Aidan," Donna took a cautious step forward, "maybe you shouldn't get so close. Come and stand over here. You shouldn't—"

"It's okay," Donna was interrupted by a soft, distant voice the voice of Jackie Burkhart. "He…can stay."

And almost like someone had lit a firecracker inside the room and it had just ricocheted off every wall that made up the room, everyone snapped out of whatever trance they were in.

"_Mom_!" Aidan just about shouted with happiness, clutching his mother's hand even harder. Not even noticing that he was pressing the needle of the IV further into her skin. "I love you so much, mommy! " He kissed her hand, scooting closer to where he was almost face to face with the petite woman.

"Goddess!" Fez exclaimed just as eagerly as Aidan had, but he bowed to showed his admiration and happiness.

Kelso and Eric both were startled together; looking at each other as that brunette looked at them.

Jackie smiled weakly at them, at all of them. She drew in breath with some effort, her lips a very faded color as she tried to keep that smile. But not forgetting that a needle was stabbing her and that someone was squeezing her hand so tightly, she turned to her son and held that smile for a few more seconds.

Aidan beamed because of it, squeezing tighter.

"I….I love…you…too, baby," his mother struggled to say, trying to hold her breath in so she wouldn't lose it, " s-so much….remember that." Her tragically beautiful eyes watered.

Because this was beautifully tragic, wasn't it? The way she finally reunited with those she used to love — those that she _did _love. Beautiful because she was there, in their presence, tragic because she was in a hospital bed. But she supposes that's the way life works, and who is she to defy that? Sure, she was a fiery being, but not even she could overrule God's choices, so there she laid. Her son, her only child standing before her, holding on to her with his entire being and she was falling away.

Tragic, but true.

She sighed with the same weakness, turning away from her child. "…Mrs. Forman," she exhaled, "I knew…knew they couldn't…keep you…away." She attempted to smile.

Kitty Forman's eyes glistened with so much hurt, with so much pain, so much sympathy, but also with so much determination as she looked at the brunette. It was like seeing her own daughter, a _better _daughter at that, in that hospital bed.

Now, she had gotten a dose of what Red and the children had suffered when they visited her on her hospital bed. It was agony in the deepest and most twisted form.

"I am needed too much to leave, Jackie," Mrs. Forman joked. "All of you and your wrongly-lived little lives, how did you all expect that that was the end of Kitty Forman?" She shook her head in a very Mrs. Forman-way. "No, no. I was just taking a year vacation to prepare me for another lifetime with all of you."

Jackie gave a shaky laugh. "That's a good…thing…there's still hope for all of them, Mrs. Forman. Especially….Especially now that you're back." Effort. It was taking a lot of effort to speak, to look, to think, to breathe. "But….none for…me, and….that's okay."

At her last words, Hyde glared. He took a step towards the bed, a step he did not want to — _could not _have taken before just to scowl greatly at his ex-girlfriend. "Do you ever shut up, man?" He snapped at her, infuriated that she would speak of the situation in such manner.

Jackie scoffed, sounding almost like she did many years ago if it hadn't been so low and rough. "I have, Hyde…I have….for the past four years."

"….Jackie," Donna took a step towards her, seeing as Hyde already had it would be fine. "I am so s-sorry." She said in tears. "I didn't know. I never could've guessed you were going through any of that. If I could go back in time and change everything I didn't do, I would. I should have been a better friend….I should have seen your pain." Tears trickled down her cheeks ashamedly. "I'm sorry."

The brunette rolled her eyes with more of that required effort. "Don't apologize," she replied, "none of this is your fault. It's no ones, no one's but mine." She took more air in, settling it before she spoke again. "You were my best friend, Donna, through everything. We were very different, but I cared for you. But things are meant to happen at their own rate and cost…how were you suppose to know?"

Donna smiled, shed more tears and said, "I cared for you too."

Squeezing his her fingers again, trying to get his mother's attention back, Aidan said, "mommy, guess what?" He didn't want her to cry ever again, and although he liked his Aunt Donna, her tears were going to make his mother shed some as well. "Grandma Forman invited me to spend days with her for summer vacation, " he informed her. "Once we go back to Chicago, I'm going to learn to write and learn how to send letters," he said happily, "that way I can write to Grandma and Grandpa Forman all the time — oh, and Betsy too."

Kelso gave the boy a sad smile. "I am sure she will love that, buddy." He was close to tears, and for the first time in a very, very long time, he wished he wasn't surrounded by his friends. He wished he could have stayed behind in the comfort that his little girl was, so he didn't have to see that woman he used to love look like she was closer to heaven than any of them.

"What do you think, mommy?" Aidan shook her arm gently, waiting eagerly for an answer.

Jackie lifted her eyes to stare at the curly-haired man a few feet from her. "What about your daddy, Aidan?" She said in a whisper, her eyes still connected with the blue of Hyde's like it had been so many times before; in so many dreams considered nightmares. "Have you asked your daddy if he would like a letter from time to time?"

Aidan turned to Hyde, giving him a sheepish smile. "Why would I write to him?" He asked, raising his eyebrow. "He'll be with us."

"He will?" Eric asked a little rudely, earning a sharp hit to the ribs by his girlfriend's elbow.

The boy nodded. "Moms and dads are supposed to be together," he explained the logic behind his thinking, "he'll be the one taking pictures for Grandma, and he'll help me send them and give them to the mail-man."

He couldn't help it, Hyde smiled a teary smile; giving his son a nod. "…Yeah, I will."

Jackie laughed genuinely, so easily that it didn't require much effort as she felt that laughter warm her bones for a second. "Oh, baby, you're going to love your father," she tried giving Aidan a squeeze back with her numb fingers, "He's a great man, really amazing. He'll teach you about Led Zeppelin, and Zen, and….." She felt her throat tighten. "….He'll be there with you every step of the way, " her eyes were upon Hyde again, "he'll protect you, take you to school, be there when you get sick or scared. He'll love you….when I can't…."

Hyde's teary smiled disappeared as he glared once more. "Jackie," he snapped, "stop. You don't know what you are saying, man."

But Jackie closed her eyes in pain, feeling her chest ignite in fire. The morphine was wearing off. She could feel the thick scar, the one that Andrew's blade created on her chest expand, multiply, reopen, burn her.

She felt it sting, burn with fury. A clear reminder of him, just like he had promised it would be when he had stuck the knife in her chest. She would always carry Andrew Taylor around with her — in her body as long as the scars were present. She would carry him in her mind as long as she kept her eyes shut and she slept; he would be the nightmares now. There was no denying that she was forever doomed; she was never going to escape him.

And that was another tragic truth — a tragically twisted one where she expected a happily-ever-after. (But, it seems, she had forgotten that she was not that girl who believed in fairytales, and this was her life.)

And because of those mistakes, of those childish mistakes that made her to who, to where she was now, she looked up at Hyde and said, "I'm sorry, Steven." It was time. "I'm…I'm sorry for leaving….for never telling you about Aidan." She paused, feeling more pain, "for never having the intention of telling you. I'm s-sorry for being selfish….for hurting you, for…destroying us."

Silence.

She took another breath, knowing that the greatest effort was going to be to bare herself in front of him. To drop the walls she had built. "I love you, Steven," a tear rolled down her cheek, "always have."

More silence, and she felt another surge of pain; like a bolt of electricity; increasing. Her breath was shortening, become dull, becoming painful; her eyes demanding to close.

Hyde took in the hardest inhale of air he had ever taken, trying his hardest to ignore the people in the background. "...I love you too, man." But he admitted it despite the audience. "I've never stopped either." And then he dared to take the final steps to her. Ones that left him standing face to face with Jackie, in the closest proximity he had been for years.

"You…promise?" Jackie asked through a wince, her eyes boring into his as he stared down at her.

Not wanting to speak, knowing that no words were going to express it, he decided to lean down to her in a moment of thrill, in a moment that he hadn't felt in such a long time. And so, he pressed his lips to her, kissing her like no one was in the room but her and him. Inflaming the memories of a million kisses before.

"…_Ew_." Aidan dodged out of the way, looking a little awkward caught in the middle.

Jackie grinned, "Take," her body shook, she felt a pulling pressure and she winced, flinched and grimaced until it settled for a millisecond to complete her sentence. "…Take care of him, Steven. He's ours."

Her body shook once more with a powerful wave, her air getting caught in her throat, the machines around her going haywire, and then her eyes closed.

Hyde's eyes were shot open, looking frantic and confused. "Jackie," he shook her shoulder gently, "Jackie, man, don't fall asleep."

"She's tired, man, "Kelso spoke slowly, "give her a chance to—" but what came next, what sounded next, shut even Michael Kelso up for possibly forever.

Jackie's body let out a unsteady breath, a struggled exhale and then the monitor connected to read her heart rates and speeds, stopped.

A loud beeping noise pierced the room hauntingly.

"— _Jackie_!" Hyde shouted, shaking her again and again, but Jacqueline Burkhart was no more.

She had died with all her damned and cursed memories, taking all of them along with her with nothing but _beep, beep, beep _following after her to the next life.

* * *

**AN: Hmm. Not so pleased with this, but I hope you liked it. Well, as much as you could like it.**


	20. Bring On The Thunder

**Chapter Twenty: Bring on the Thunder**

"_Your eyes are the brightest of all the colors, I don't ever wanna love another_

_You'll always be my thunder, so bring on the rain_

_And bring on the thunder."_

Five years.

Sixty months.

Two-hundred and forty weeks.

One-thousand and eight-hundred and twenty five days.

A butt-load of hours and minutes, and seconds that felt like a lifetime.

That's how long it has been; that's the amount of time that has passed by with the breeze, with the ever constant changing and repeating seasons of time. Five years of so many changes, of so many new things, and things that were defined as forever the same.

And in those five years of changes, in those months of renewal and adjusting, in those weeks of watching carefully, in those hours of feeling something he couldn't really define, Steven Hyde had come to realize that he hadn't stepped foot inside Point Place's General Hospital ever since that one heartbreaking day of loss. And in a way, he was immensely grateful for that; it wasn't something he really couldn't complain about. It meant no more pain, no more suffering, no more agony.

It was impossible not to feel like his life had been shoved into the doors of that hospital to await every day with the need to see what would come next from one of the mouths of those doctors; of those people he depended on to make things like they were before he waited in those metallic-chairs. But now he was free—he'd been _freed _so long ago. Even though it tore him apart, even though it shattered him and changed his life forever, but free he was.

But with freedom that was deserved by nature, he found that that liberty was corrupted like everything he was so skeptical about. Being free of the prison of the hospital's walls did not mean his mind was. Because even though he had avoided it for five years, the memories of that cold, cold place were going to be forever clear and there was nothing he could do about it.

Because it had been there where he found out that Mrs. Forman—that compassionate lady that had offered him her home after Edna ran off on him; that he just couldn't help but to love—fell into a comatose state. Where the doctors had given her no hope of reviving, of ever waking from her critical state. Where he spent days and days sitting in the waiting room, his eyes staring at nothing as he secretly prayed and hoped to find some kind of faith for her sake. Because Mrs. Forman needed to be okay, she needed to wake and he was willing to call upon the power of the stars if it got her to come back to them. Because Steven Hyde, even if life hadn't granted him a blood-tie, needed his mother.

And then by another tragic fate, one caused by destiny and life, Jacqueline Burkhart came back to Point Place when he had assumed—and strongly believed and wanted—that she would never return to her hometown. But she had, holy Zeppelin she had. Jacqueline Burkhart came back with a bag of surprises; not necessarily the ones Steven Hyde liked.

Nope, instead of giving him something to get rid of the edge of her arrival, she brought her husband and their child, Aidan Taylor. A five year-old little boy with wavy, dirty-blonde hair and piercing crystal-blue eyes. An appearance that he hadn't quite matched on the spot that seemed to have changed Hyde's life forever. All because Jacqueline Burkhart left Point Place years ago with Hyde's child in her womb.

Her returned had ignited his affection for her once more, those feelings that he tried burying when she had left him; left all of them without any answers or explanations. And it was because of that mystery, of that sudden disappearing act that there were so many questions that he needed answers for— all which carried a twist of fate that no one expected. One of the many being that Jacqueline Burkhart was married to a psychopathic man that abused her and her child.

Which comes back full-circle and leads him back to the waiting room of Point Place's General Hospital. The place were after three days of her surprises, of her mysteries, of her lies, and her visit to her hometown for the first time in years, that Jacqueline Burkhart lost her life. Where she slipped away in front of the eyes of the people who loved her more than they could have ever explained to her.

They had all watched her with excruciating screams and blinding tears leave earth forever, five years ago.

"—Listen here, dumbass," Red Forman's voice—oh, yes he was very much still alive after these passing angry years—shook Hyde from his haunting memories with his yell. "I have put up with a lot of your crap over the years, and there is a lot, but I will not have this nonsense inside my house!" Looking practically the same, but with his hair-line even thinner than it had ever been, Mister Forman turned an intense red as he glared at the always handsome Michael Kelso. "Now, you butter your waffles and eat it, or get the hell out of my house!"

Kelso's eyes widened, looking up at Hyde and at the elderly lady by the stove. "….Do I have to?" He asked the woman like a small child being told to eat his vegetables.

Mrs. Forman shrugged, smiling apologetically. "His house, his rules, dear." She said gently, in the way that was accustomed as she smoothed out her hair. The blonde curly locks that had taken her a whole year to re-grow again.

And thinking about that, Kitty frowned to herself as she headed to the sink to leave a dirty pan there. The cancer had taken time away from her life—time that she could have enjoyed and cherished with her family, but one thing that infuriated Kitty the most was that the damned disease had taken her curls. Her trademark. (God was going to have a talking-to when it was actually her moment to go. No one touches the hair, _no one_.)

Kelso groaned. "The things I do for your waffles, Mrs. Forman," he said as he smoothed butter over his warm breakfast.

Red glared again, observing that Kelso did what he was told before he actually continued on with his own breakfast. "Jelly on waffles," he scoffed, "the things you potheads come up with."

Hyde leaned back on his chair, smirking at his father and said, "you never change, old man."

"Keep it up," Mister Forman leered in return as his adoptive-son removed his glasses and smirked at him, "and my foot will be up your ass." He stabbed his eggs with that famous threatening gaze on his face.

Hyde raised his eyebrow and didn't dare to respond to Red Forman. He was almost thirty years-old and he really would love to actually get there. (Because, really, there was no more pride than being the first Hyde to be free, clean, alive, and not working at a gas station past the age of eighteen.)

Mister Forman continued to glare, waiting.

Hyde cleared his throat and turned to look at the man putting butter resentfully on his waffles. "Why are you even here, Kelso?" Red nodded in approval and began to eat. "Doesn't Brooke ever feed you?"

"I wish," Kelso responded with a full mouth, "but she's been at Donna's before I even woke up. And I couldn't find the milk or the cereal, so I came here." He grinned at them.

And maybe due to a mixture of things, mainly Kelso's stupid grin, his talking, and his mention of that redhead, Red started frowning all over again. "You would think that when your children get married and move out, they would do it away from you—_miles away_. Where it takes at least a good freaking hour to get there. Not across the garage!"

Scrubbing a pan squeaky clean, Mrs. Forman heaved a sigh as she stopped for a moment to scowl up at her husband. "Oh, Red," she shook her curls at him, "it's a good thing Eric and Donna decided to stay close by. That way if they ever needed anything, if _we _ever need anything it wont be a hassle. And not to mention I can make sure my baby boy is being fed."

Red frowned even more, and Kelso and Hyde exchanged amused expressions.

"You never know what kind of mess Donna will be feeding him," Kitty continued, sounding genuinely concerned. Hyde and Kelso laughed at her statement. "He has had at least three food-poisonings in the last two months," she said unbelievably, "and that is not even counting the ones from their first three years of marriage."

"_Burn_!" Kelso shouted with an open mouth full of food; laughing loudly as Red and Kitty looked at him wildly. " I love your classy burns, Mrs. Forman. Very nice."

But just Kitty was about to say something in response, the sliding-door of her kitchen slid open erratically, and in came a shrill voice that exclaimed, "— you're such a pain, Aidan Hyde!"

Aidan Hyde— a new version of the vanished and deserted Aidan Taylor—entered through the Formans kitchen door, rolling his blue eyes in a way that imitated his father's usually annoyed expression. Making it even more apparent that he was indeed Steven Hyde's son if he could pull it off so easily and effortlessly. "Give it a rest, Betsy," the now eleven year-old boy said to the girl screaming her way in.

"You would like that, but _no_," Betsy laughed mockingly, scowling deeply.

Aidan rolled his eyes once more. "Fine, then. Just shut up then."

The brunette girl frowned more, looking appalled by his words and his apparent annoyance. "You just can't apologize, can you?" Her face shined with anger, seeping in through her beautiful features as she crossed her arms.

"Whatever," Aidan snorted.

"Aidan!" His response added to her anger. (Damn him and his freaking Zen-practices with his father!)

Hyde tried not to laugh as he watched smugly from his seat.(It was not a complete day unless a Hyde irritated a Kelso.) But by the disapproving expression on Mrs. Forman's face, Hyde cleared his throat and said, "Aidan, what did you do to Betsy?" Because apparently he had to be the responsible parent before he could applaud his son's ease. ( Now not only did he enjoy teasing the father, but he got to watch his son tease the daughter. It was the great circle of life.)

Aidan scoffed, "nothing."

"_Liar_!"

"Aidan," Mrs. Forman called her grandson as Betsy started shouting again, "what happened?"

Her grandson sighed again, trying to collect himself before he could talk back to his grandmother and get a talking-to from his grandfather. "I was playing some basketball with my friends a while ago," he began, but not before secretly rolling his eyes, "when we saw Pauline Miller trying to pull Betsy behind some bushes." He looked away from his grandmother as soon as her brows shot up, and looked at Hyde. "He said something about finding second base, so I kicked him in the gut." He shrugged.

In a quick second, Kelso and Mrs. Forman's jaw dropped; Hyde smirked; Red rolled his eyes; Betsy glared; and Aidan shrugged again.

But catching the last part as he was about to enter the kitchen, Eric Forman stood by the doorway and hissed, "_Mitch_." He could picture the damned redheaded midget that tried to steal Donna away years ago. "Like father, like son," he snapped, also envisioning Pauline trying to get frisky with Betsy at such a young age.

"Betsy!" Kelso bellowed aghast, not paying attention to Eric. "How could you have let Pauline Miller lay his midget hands on you?" His face was twisted in fury and repulsion.

"I didn't!" Betsy shouted back, now looking even more upset and offended. "Honestly, dad, I'm not stupid. I might be eleven, but I knew what he was trying to do!"

And then a much greater fear pierced Kelso. "You do?" (Had she heard him and Brooke…? Oh, God. He was such a bad father.)

The girl nodded at her father. "I've heard Aidan's friends talking about bases before," she then turned to the boy with the blue eyes and smirked as his Grandmother Forman looked ready to pick her jaw off the floor, "and that Henderson kid said that Aidan's already gotten past first."

Mrs. Forman looked appalled as she coughed on the air she was choking on. "_W-What_?" She gaped.

Aidan scowled at Betsy, not even bothering to assure his grandmother that no such thing has ever happened.

"…They are so young and already," Kitty paused herself, daring not to go on and think that she had to deal with that. (She had suffered enough with Laurie, she didn't need a repeat.)

Looking at Betsy with a disapproving manner too, Red shook his balding head at her. "Just like her father," he scoffed. "You wait until she is older, you're going to have a lot of hormonal boys rampaging your basement." He glared at Kelso.

"Yeah," Eric retorted as he stepped into his kitchen, "Kelso, you should ask dad for advice. After all, he knew how to handle Laurie's boy phase." He went to kiss his mother on the cheek. "When did that start, dad? Like when she was seven, give or take?" He smirked at his father, feeling like the chosen, golden boy. (Oh, how he was glad that he had a whore as a sister. Nothing pleased him more than knowing that Red knew that Laurie's life ambition was to be someone's mistress.)

"Shut it," Mister Forman growled.

"—Hello, family!" Entering the same sliding-door, Fez entered animatedly into the kitchen as a blonde followed his pursuit inside.

"Morning," the blonde woman said to all of them, holding on to Fez's hand with a gigantic smile.

Red frowned more to himself, shoving a fork full of waffles so he couldn't say something so crude that any woman must never hear.

"Mmm, waffles," Fez cheered loudly as Mrs. Forman extended him a plate with a bright smile. "Where's the jelly?" He asked as he kissed her lightly on the forehead, eager to eat his usual Saturday feast.

Red groaned loudly. (Damn potheads!)

Laughing lightly as Fez released her hand and took a seat on the already-packed table, Becky—oh, that's right, Becky the bitchy nurse that Fez hated so much— turned to Mrs. Forman with a warm smile. "Mrs. Forman, how're you doing today?" She asked with a caring tone, but also with her medical degree backing her up.

"I'm doing fine, darling." Mrs. Kitty smiled at her; almost reassuringly and warmly. It had been easy for Mrs. Forman to accept Becky into the fast growing family when Fez had announced that he was in a very serious relationship. Of course no one had believed him, especially when he said he had purposed to this alleged girlfriend. But, of course, all of those lies they were sure he was saying were thrown out the window when he brought Becky home with a sparkling ring on her finger. (The next conversation that followed that surprise was Red asking Fez were he stole the ring from, but nonetheless everyone was pretty happy for the young foreigner..)

"Are you sure?" Becky asked warily. "Because if there's something I can do for you, Mrs. Forman, please let me know."

Kitty shook her head causally. "No, no, dear." She repeated in her reassuring tone. "How about I get you a plate of breakfast? The baby must be starving."

"But I'm already eating." Fez interjected. "Get it?" He then added as the others looked at him blankly. "…Oh, I'm hysterical." He laughed to himself.

And being that love turns you into a complete mush, Becky laughed along with her fiancée like he indeed was the funniest man on the planet. "That's okay, Mrs. Forman," she quickly answered the woman, "but I actually ate before coming. I'm only three months pregnant, but this baby loves food and loves it early."

"If that baby's going to eat as much as you, Pele, you might want to consider getting a real job." Red told Fez seriously, yanking away the mug of coffee before he could get it. "Because you're not bringing that kid to eat here."

Fez blinked his dark eyes, looking very confused. "I own a beauty salon, Mister Red."

"That's not a business."

"I own a chain of beauty salons," Fez added, even more confused as Mister Forman scoffed at him.

But before Red could say something that could get him in trouble by the already-frowning Kitty, her eyes caught sight of that famous redhead entering inside the kitchen. "Donna!" Mrs. Forman exclaimed, a very happy expression on her face. "How is he?" She asked almost immediately as she spotted the little bundle she was cradling in her arms. "How's my little Nathaniel?"

"He woke up not that long ago, but he's doing good," Donna responded cheerfully, still cradling the baby in her arms gently. "Brooke was trying to help me take care of him while I made his breakfast and packed his diaper bag." Donna's emerald eyes peered down at the two year-old sleeping peacefully. "He can be a little fussy, but I'm really do think we chose the right baby when he's asleep like this."

At the pride in her voice, Eric walked towards his redheaded wife. "Of course we did," he told her as he put an arm around her shoulder. "I knew it the first moment I saw him wrapped in that Star Wars blanket."

Donna rolled her green eyes. "Yeah, Eric," she started sarcastically, "that's why we adopted him."

After the chaotic mess that had happened all around them, after the pain had subsided and things were trying to go back to normal, Eric returned to work with the underprivileged kids and became a very active member in many programs to help with their education. (Though Africa was definitely not in the question when Donna and his mother gave him the angriest facial expression when he had brought it up once.) And it was through so many projects with these tragic cases that Eric found himself teaching regularly in one of Wisconsin's main orphanages; teaching the older students that had not been adopted yet everything they would learn in a regular high school. And through those teachings one day, Eric had decided to bring Donna around to get to know his students when the idea of adoption began growing inside the redhead's head when she was introduced into that orphanage.

They had been married for four years then, but things were still coming along for both of them. Separately and together. There was just so much that they both needed to handle and adjust to, that the idea of actually having children had yet not popped up; nor did they choose to bring the subject up either. When it happened, it would happen, and they were okay with that. But it wasn't until Donna had taken a detour in the orphanage when she had spotted all the babies that something crashed inside her chest.

The idea of a baby now seemed possible, but Donna didn't want to conceive one for pure selfless reasons. She wanted to _help _all those children, she wanted to give one of them all the love in the world. (Because although she had her father, Donna knew the pain of being left by a mother. And when she looked at those little creatures she loathed that fact that one day they would grew and realize their mothers had left them too.)

Her decision had been made and she laid it down for Eric as simply as she could; even having backup ideas and persuasive reasons on how adopting one of the children would be beneficial for them. But to Donna's surprise, it had not take more than three minutes for Eric to accept. It had shocked Mister and Mrs. Forman, however, but Eric was quick to tell them that he was going to grant his wife's wishes.

And soon, after a year of waiting for papers to be filed and processed, Nathaniel Robert Forman joined the clan.

"Look at him, Michael," Brooke sighed lovingly as she looked at the baby boy with adoring and glittering eyes, "he's so adorable."

"Well, you know what is _not_?" He asked loudly, starling her as he shouted and stood quickly from his chair. "Betsy sneaking off into bushes with that son of a midget, Pauline Miller!"

Brooke's brown eyes shot open, quickly forgetting about the baby to stare incredulously at her eleven year-old daughter. "_What_?" She practically shrieked.

"…Thanks a lot, Aidan," Betsy hissed under her breath, nudging him hard on the ribs.

"My pleasure," Aidan said with a giant smirk, not flinching once from her hit. "Maybe now you've learned your lesson, and next time you won't mess with me."

Brooke began mumbling something indignantly at Kelso about leaving Betsy to be babysat by his, quote on quote 'creepily, dirty, womanizer older brother,' and that next time she knew that Casey Kelso was in her daughter's life, she would leave him in a heartbeat.

"Please," Betsy snorted quietly at Aidan. "You know that the real reason why you hate Pauline is because you like me." Her angelic voice was extra smug as she spoke. "_You love me_, Aidan Hyde. Admit it."

The boy glared. "I do not."

"Do too," Betsy sang happily as the kitchen erupted into mindless chatter about little Nathaniel and the things you must always put jelly on. (Much to Red's anger and irritation.)

"Don't."

"Do."

"Don't."

"Do."

"Dad," turning away from the girl's annoyingly mocking face, Aidan huffed at his father as he no longer wanted to play childish games with a Kelso, "can we go now?"

And as blue eyes met blue eyes, Hyde nodded in agreement. "Yeah. It's too crowded." Hyde stood from his chair. And without saying a word to his parents, brother, or his friends, Hyde put a hand on Aidan's shoulder and began to lead him to the swinging-door.

"….I hate her." Aidan mumbled underneath his breath angrily. "Why couldn't Uncle Kelso have accepted that job in Oregon when he had the chance?"

Hyde smirked as he caught his little comment. "So, you like Betsy, huh?"

"_No_!" Aidan snapped instantly, looking bewildered and offended by that accusation. "How can _I _like _her_? She's the world's most—"The eleven year-old boy suddenly stopped in his rant of defense as he noticed a pair of amused eyes that landed on him.

And noticing that pair of eyes as well, Hyde felt something inside his chest ignite in fire; his blue eyes shining wildly as he gaped into the mismatched eyes of the love of his life.

There on that old yellow couch sat his wife. A beautiful woman with the most alluring presence he had ever encountered; with the power to bewitch him with just a blink of those dazzling eyes that he was in enthralled with. He watched her smile, her teeth glowing a sparkly-white as she looked absolutely happy to have some company in the living room.

"You two surely took your time," the woman spoke with a teasing scolding voice, "I was getting really bored waiting for you. Did you know that Mrs. Forman has magazines from the seventies? Who does that?"

"…Waffles," was what Hyde managed to reply in a sheepish manner as he continued to watch her smile.

Rolling his eyes at his father, Aidan looked at the woman nonchalantly as he walked over to her. "You were the one who chowed down the breakfast like Godzilla before the rest of us could even sit down at the table."

"Aidan," the woman scowled instantly, "how many times do I have to tell you not to compare my eating habits with your Aunt Donna's? I'm not fat, alright."

The boy laughed as he gave the woman a gracious and caring one-armed hug. "Of course not," he said as he let her go, "you're just incredibly _rounded_." And looking at the giant bump that was exploding out of her abdomen, Aidan patted the little undeveloped life that lived there. "How many pounds have you gained? Like ten, twenty?"

The woman with those mismatched bright eyes gaped shockingly at the boy. "Jackie Burkhart does not gain weight, Aidan!"

"No, but Jackie Hyde does," Aidan retorted at his mother, patting her six-month pregnant belly. "That's a good brother, little Hyde. You make our momma eat more doughnuts. She loves them."

Frowning, Aidan's mother turned in an angle away from him. "It's not even a boy, Aidan."

"It's not even a girl, either, so does it matter?" Aidan said cheekily. "Grandma Kitty says it's a girl, and the rest of us think it's a boy, so right now it doesn't matter what we call it."

"It matters to me."

Aidan shrugged. "Maybe, but I don't care because whatever it is, you promised to name it Zeppelin."

Watching the interaction between his wife and his son, Hyde couldn't help but to feel something extraordinary burning inside of him as he watched Jackie give Aidan a playful shove; her presence radiating all around the room was so much power and so much life. And it was in these moments when he watched her, when he watched her breathe, blink, laugh, talk—when he watched her do _anything _that he thought how none of what she did existed before her rebirth.

Because in that hospital five years ago, in the most heartbreaking and agonizing way, Jacqueline Burkhart, the one who had been abused and humiliated for four years, did in fact _die_. That Jacqueline Burkhart was ripped and stripped away from the torturous life she had been living by the spirit of the long-forgotten and hidden Jackie Burkhart; that girl that was all that Hyde ever loved in the world. She came back yelling for her revival, begging that Jacqueline died so she could lurked back into her petite body and live once more in the way they had all known her for.

And she did, she really did. After the most horrifying five minutes of his life—of all their lives—those beautiful eyes blinked back to life as the doctor fought to get the haunting beeps from echoing around the room. Jackie Burkhart came back to him, to their son, to their family, to life and it was like she had never left. She looked at all of them like she was finally home; like she had let death wash away the horror and nightmares while she was Jacqueline Burkhart, Andrew Taylor's wife, and she came back to life as the girl they loved and saw grow.

But now, now after those traumatic events, after her fast recovery, she left all that to transform into Jackie Hyde. And there was nothing else in the world that was more beautiful to his ears than that sound of that.

"Steven—"

He blinked, distracted away from his thoughts as he heard her call him. (And maybe he had lied there. There was some exceptions that were more awesome than the sound of his last name attached to her first name.) "Erm, what?"

Jackie crossed her arms over her swollen belly, tapping her foot impatiently. "I asked if it was crowded in there, pudding-pop."

"Don't be calling me that, Jackie," Hyde grunted as he walked to her. "Brooke's contemplating on trying to bring another Kelso into the world, you know, and if Kelso starts calling me pudding-pop again I'm going to make sure he never reproduces again." He threw an arm around her tiny waist. "And it's going to be all your fault."

Jackie scowled, but said nothing as he pulled her to him a little tighter. Pressing a feather-like kiss on top of her brown waves.

And almost like his ears had been burning, Kelso busted through the swinging-door. "—Hey!" He shouted with a waffled drenched in jelly waving high in the air. "Where you leaving without us?"

"You son of a bitch," Fez entered after Kelso, glaring at Hyde, "you promised you'd wait for us!"

And then the swinging-door swung open again. "Guys, guys, relax." Eric strolled in casually. "Obviously they weren't leaving yet. All of you seem to be forgetting that Hyde can't forget the most important person in his life—_me_."

Hyde rolled his eyes at his brother.

"No, no, no." Entering the living room together, Becky and Mrs. Forman shook their heads disapprovingly at the boys. "Absolutely not. All of you can not go into the ultrasound room."

"Or into the hospital in general for that matter," Becky added, "you three seem to be forgetting you were practically banned from entering the building after the line of wheelchairs you managed to destroy."

Pushing the door open for her mother and her Aunt Donna, Betsy said, "I'll stay in the waiting room with Aidan, Godmother Jackie." She leered at the boy. "Since kids aren't allowed inside the ultrasound room."

"_No_." Aidan snapped. "I rather wait in the car."

Cradling her two year-old, Donna looked at Eric firmly. "You and Kelso are staying outside with the kids, Eric."

"What—_why_?" Eric retorted at his wife. "How come you get to go in?"

"Yeah," Kelso huffed, "what makes you so damn special, big Red? I'm the ex-boyfriend."

Donna glared, balancing Nathaniel on her arms. "I'm the best friend, dillhole. And you don't matter in this story, so beat it."

Becky sighed, shaking her head. "Well, all of you are going to have to decide who goes in because the limit is five. And that's counting Jackie and Hyde."

"Well, I'm the mother, so I'm automatically in." Mrs. Forman said.

Fez stopped his foot in a pre-tantrum way. "I'm your fiancée, Becks, don't I get to go in?"

"You already did, Fez. That's why she's pregnant."

"_Burn_!" Kelso shouted at Eric's comment.

Entering his living room with his jacket and keys in his hands at the ready, Red rolled his eyes and grunted, "dumbasses," as he headed for the door. (They could waste their time debating about who was going to go into that room, but he already knew _he_ was going to be there. There was no way he was missing the discovery of what his next grandchild was going to be.)

Beaming at the obvious love and adoration all those people had for her, Jackie couldn't help but to feel in total harmony. Because this had to be heaven, she was sure of it. Because there was nothing much more closer to nirvana than that feeling of watching, living, breathing in every person that compiled her enormous, happy family. Because she was in the place she wanted to be in.

Because even though she had a few scars tainting her skin, she had been set free forever from all her past horrors. Because Andrew Taylor had been mistaken when he jabbed that knife into her chest—because when she closed her eyes at night when she allowed sleep to wash over her, she didn't see his face. She didn't see him, she didn't feel the blows he had given her time and time again.

No.

She saw her family, she saw all of them. She saw Aidan, she saw Steven.

Breathing in once, feeling the light kick of her second child inside of her, Jackie blinked up to stare at her husband. And to her lack of surprise, he was already staring at her too.

She smiled at him. "I love you, pudding-pop."

Hyde rolled his eyes, but leaned down towards her; capturing her lips in a quick peck that he would have loved to extend into a moment that lasted forever. "Yeah, I know," he told her as he turned her and Aidan away from the group as soon as Kelso had jumped on top of Fez to try and win his spot into the ultrasound room, "I love you too, Jackie."

And he knew that even though he was as filled with conspiracies and the same crap as ever, that loving her and the children she's given him, there was nothing truer than that.

~*THE END*~

* * *

**AN: Well, well, well, my dearies. I hoped you all were satisfied with this chapter. I think it ended in a good note, and you guys got to see a little of what happened after that one day Jackie died. **

**So, getting that out of the way, I just wanted to say thank you for giving me amazing feedback and loving the story so much. I really liked re-writing it for the original writer of the story. I thought it was a powerful story the first round, and now I'm much more happy where I took it the second run.**

**So thank you to all of you! (:**


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